Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to travel to Solomon Islands to sign security pact

The Morrison government is bracing for a high-level Chinese delegation to arrive in the Solomon Islands imminently to sign a security pact.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to lead a delegation on a tour of the region. Picture: AFP

The Morrison government is bracing for a high-level Chinese delegation to touch down in Honiara imminently to officially sign the security pact between Beijing and the Solomon Islands.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to lead the delegation on a tour of the region.

Several well-placed sources told The Australian intelligence suggests the visit to the Solomon Islands by one of China’s most senior politicians could take place prior to the Australian federal election, even as early as this week. However, the timing is unclear.

The Australian understands Mr Wang’s visit would be to a range of Pacific countries, not exclusively the Solomon Islands.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. Picture: AFP

Should the visit occur before the May 21 election, national security analysts say it could be seen as an attempt at political interference in support of Labor.

The visit would thrust the issue, and the Morrison government’s handling of it, firmly into the spotlight in the final week of the campaign.

It would also be a show of force by China ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum, scheduled for the first week of next month.

Mr Wang’s visit comes as the head of Australia’s overseas spy agency has hinted that disaffected Chinese officials are increasingly providing his operatives with information because of concerns over the growing authoritarianism under President Xi Jinping.

Australian Secret Intelligence Agency director-general Paul Symon said the agency was benefiting from intelligence opportunities “that emerge from the suppressed dissent within authoritarian states”.

The news Beijing had done a secret deal with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has put the Morrison government under pressure during the election campaign.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese and foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong have described it as the worst foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since the end of World War II, accusing the government of mishandling the situation and underfunding the Pacific.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has faced questions over why Foreign Minister Marise Payne had not visited the Solomon Islands, leaving diplomatic negotiations to the Pacific Islands Minister Zed Seselja.

Australian Secret Intelligence Service director Paul Symon and Office of National Assessments director-general Andrew Shearer visited the Solomon Islands to warn Mr Sogavare about the consequences of signing the security pact with China.

The advice, drawn from classified intelligence, was ignored.

While Mr Albanese has sought to politicise the issue, his own deputy had encouraged China’s involvement in the Pacific in recent months, undermining Labor’s attack.

The Australian has revealed that Richard Marles, Labor’s deputy leader, dismissed concerns about Beijing setting up a military base in the Pacific Islands and said Australia should welcome China’s investment in the region in a mini-book he authored in August last year.

“Australia has no right to expect a set of exclusive relationships with the Pacific nations. They are perfectly free to engage on whatever terms they choose with China or, for that matter, any other country. Disputing this would be resented, as the recent past has shown,” Mr Marles wrote in his book, Ties That Bind: Australia in the Pacific.

The Australian reported on Monday that a draft maritime co-operation agreement indicated China planned to build “deep-sea fishing bases” and develop oil, gas and undersea mining ventures in the Solomon Islands.

There are fears Beijing is also seeking to establish a military base.