Cash splash a missed opportunity

Christmas has come early for Solomon Islands with Anthony Albanese’s “no strings attached” handout last Friday of $190m in Australian taxpayer dollars for the ardently pro-Beijing regime in Honiara. The assistance package, covering a four-year period, is intended to help Solomon Islands expand its police force. It includes the establishment of a new police training centre in the capital. Remarkably, however, the generous handout of our taxpayer dollars to the island nation that has become the main Chinese strategic pawn in our immediate South Pacific region imposes no apparent requirement to curtail or even diminish its steady march towards full-scale embrace by Beijing.

That embrace, astonishingly, includes the covert operations of at least 14 senior Chinese police officers embedded by Beijing in the heart of the command structure of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force by China’s notorious Ministry of State Security, the main vehicle for its domestic and international subversion. As Lowy Institute Pacific Islands program director Mihai Sora says, the funding is a “clear win for Solomon Islands, which has gained a much-needed boost to its law-and-order sector. It feels more like a Christmas present to the Solomon Islands … but the gains for Australia are less clear cut”.

They are extremely dubious, and the view of cynics who believe that leaders of the Honiara government – including former prime minister Manasseh Sogavare, the architect of ties with China who now serves as Finance and Treasury Minister – will be laughing all the way to the bank following the Australian Prime Minister’s announcement is doubtless well founded. As Mr Sora noted: “Solomon Islands has not committed even to scaling back the permanent rotating presence of Chinese police officers, who will continue to run parallel police training activities. Australia is hanging its hat on an ‘understanding’ with (Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah) Manele that Australia remains the partner of choice for security in Solomon Islands. But this falls short of a solid strategic commitment, the likes of which Australia is clearly seeking and has had measures of success with Tuvalu, Nauru and PNG, respectively.”

Giving away $190m to the Solomons demands at least the sort of security assurances contained in recent deals with other Pacific nations. Under Mr Sogavare previously and now Mr Manele (although Mr Sogavare continues to hold the whip hand), Solomon Islands wilfully has done everything to follow Beijing’s diktat and undermine Australia’s interests. It does not deserve $190m in Australian taxpayer money, handed over without any commitment that it will even reconsider the influence Beijing now has in Honiara.

So-called experts who believe Mr Albanese’s deal will bring Chinese influence in Solomon Islands to “a standstill” and halt further growth in Beijing’s security arrangements are almost certainly being unrealistic.