US warns Solomons on China

China will become Solomon Islands’ ‘owner and minder’, US warns, as Australia asks Manasseh Sogavare to dump his security deal with Beijing.

Solomon Islands Prime Minster Manasseh Sogavare, left, and Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Zed Seselja, in Honiara. Picture: Supplied

One of America’s top foreign policy makers has warned Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare that China will become his country’s “owner and minder” if he pushes ahead with a security agreement with Beijing.

US Senate foreign affairs committee chairman Bob Menendez said it was not in the interests of the US, Australia or the Solomon Islands for a Chinese base to be ­established in the Pacific nation, and Mr Sogavare needed to understand “what it means to all of us if that were the pathway forward”.

The warning came as Australia’s Minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, “respectfully” urged Mr Sogavare during a meeting in ­Honiara to abandon the security deal with Beijing, which Western allies believe will open the way for a Chinese base 2000km off Australia’s northeast coast.

Mr Sogavare has vowed to sign the agreement but insisted there will be no Chinese base, branding the suggestion as “insulting”.

But the US Democrat senator, who is in Australia with leading Republican Lindsey Graham, said nations that signed such agreements risked surrendering their sovereignty to Beijing.

“My hope is there is a broader, deeper understanding that China at the end of the day will be your owner and minder,” Senator Menendez told Sky News.

“That’s what their ultimate goal is. And they have shown that in ­Africa and other parts of the world, where it seems they are coming in with good intentions, and then their coercive economic policies, their coercive practices, ultimately put you being owned by China.”

Senator Graham, in Australia with Senator Menendez as part of a congressional delegation for meetings about the AUKUS ­security agreement, said China’s threat and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had done more to unite the Republican and Democratic parties “than anything we could have done ourselves”.

He said Australia had paid “a heavy price to stand up to China”, and the US appreciated what it had done.

US senator Bob Menendez. Picture: Caroline Brehman via Getty Images

Their comments came ahead of a visit to Solomon Islands by Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific adviser, Kurt Campbell, in coming days, which will pile further pressure on Mr Sogavare to walk away from the pact.

On the election hustings in Geelong, Scott Morrison denied his government had “dropped the ball” in allowing China to strengthen its foothold in the Solomon Islands, or that the US was unhappy with Australia’s handling of the matter.

“We have a very close relationship with the United States, and that has not been at their view and I reject that absolutely,” the Prime Minister said.

Senator Seselja, who flew to Honiara on an extraordinary visit during the election caretaker period, said Australia was committed to supporting the Solomon Islands to meet its security needs “swiftly, transparently and with full respect for its sovereignty”.

“We have asked Solomon ­Islands respectfully to consider not signing the agreement and to consult the Pacific family in the spirit of regional openness and transparency, consistent with our region’s security frameworks,” Senator Seselja said after his meeting with Mr Sogavare.

“We look forward to ongoing engagement with the Solomon ­Islands government, and with our Pacific family members, on these very important issues.”

He said Australia had been a strong partner to the Solomon Islands for many years, supporting its security needs in two missions. Australia had also contributed more than $160m this year in development aid to Solomon Islands.

The head of the US Marine Corps, who is in Australia to meet Australian Defence chiefs and visit the US Marine Rotational Force in Darwin, said the West was failing to prevent creeping Chinese ­influence in the South Pacific.

Marine Corps Commandant David Berger said China’s interest in the Solomon Islands was driven by the nation’s strategic ­location, and declared the US and Australia needed to highlight “what this means, long term”.

“A lot of things change in warfare,” General Berger told the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. “Not geography. Where the Solomon Islands are matters. It did (in WWII), it does now.”

He said China was not “picking a fight” but achieving its ­objectives. “We’re not successfully deterring it (because of) what some people call grey zone … We haven’t figured out quite how to stop that,” he said.

Earlier, Deputy US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman spoke to Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele to emphasise America’s commitment to the country and the region.

Ms Sherman spoke to Mr Manele about a planned new American embassy in Honiara, and “our joint efforts to broaden and deepen engagement between our countries in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region”.

She also put in a call to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Kathryn Campbell, expressing “concern about recent developments in the Indo-Pacific”.