Red alert after China deal in Solomons
Solomon Islands ‘ready to sign’ China security deal, sparking ‘strategic nighmare’ for Australia.
The Solomon Islands is “ready to sign” the security deal with China that has sparked alarm across the international community, with experts warning the realisation of the agreement could become “Australia’s strategic nightmare”.
After days of being urged to reconsider the pact with China from several countries including Australia, Solomon Island Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare hit out against suggestions that “we are unfit to manage our sovereign affairs”.
“We welcome any country that is willing to support us in our security space. There is no devious intention, nor secret plan, this is a decision by a sovereign nation that has its national interest at heart,” he said in a fiery speech to his parliament on Tuesday morning.
“It is clear that we need to diversify the country’s relationship with other partners, and what is wrong with that?
“We find it very insulting to be branded as unfit to manage our sovereign affairs, or (to) have other motives in pursuing our national interests.”
Mr Sogavare’s address was followed by comments from Beijing that warned any last-minute attempt to head off their security pact with Solomon Islands was “doomed to fail”.
Scott Morrison on Monday night spoke to leaders of Papau New Guinea and Fiji in an attempt to enlist them in opposition to the agreement.
The Prime Minister also spoke with Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday morning, who said the pact was “gravely concerning” and had the potential of leading to the “militarisation of the region”.
But China’s foreign ministry said Australia and other countries were behaving “self-importantly and condescendingly” and that the agreement with the Solomon Islands as “beyond reproach”.
“Normal law enforcement and security cooperation between China and Solomon Islands, two sovereign and independent countries, is consistent with international law and international practice,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Monday night in Beijing.
“Relevant countries should earnestly respect Solomon Islands’ sovereignty and its independent decisions instead of deciding what others should and should not do.
“Any attempt to disrupt and undermine mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Pacific island countries is doomed to fail.”
However, former Australian High Commissioner to the Solomon Island James Batley said the nation “might find it had bitten off more than it could chew” and the deal would have serious and unintended consequences.
“From what I’ve seen from the Solomon Islands, their sense is that they’re leveraging the geostrategic contest, but they might find they’ve just been leveraged by China,” he told The Australian.
Mr Batley said the ability for China to deploy police or other assets into the region would have “serious implications” and opened up the possibility of naval vessels being based out of the island nation.
While the final form of the agreement has not been released, Mr Sogavare said it was “ready for signing”.
It follows clauses of the draft leaked last Thursday raising serious alarm with Australian parliament, including article 1 which says “the relevant forces of China can be used to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects in Solomon Islands”.
But Mr Sogavare denied suggestions that China could ever base significant military assets in the Solomon Islands and said his nation was “not being pressured in any way” by Beijing.
“There is no intention whatsoever to ask China to build a military base in the Solomon Islands,” he said.
“We are insulted by such unfounded stories.”
Australian Strategic Policy Institute director Peter Jennings said the leaked copy of the draft deal was “highly concerning” and showed the Solomon Islands was “giving away a lot of its own sovereignty” and handing China “a blank cheque to move military forces to the nation for its own purposes”.
“The risk is that we will see a permanently established Chinese presence in Melanesia, which does create for Australia obvious defence concerns,” he said.
“For example it could give China a capacity to do a lot more maritime surveillance of the east coast and if you advance thinking ahead a few years to when we have a nuclear submarine naval base… it could give China the capacity to watch that.”
When grilled in parliament on Tuesday over how long Australia had known about the security deal, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said her government had “been aware of increasing interest in engagement” in the Solomon Islands “for some time”.
“We’ve been clear and regularly and respectfully raised our concerns with the Solomon Islands government about these matters of security engagement… that may undermine the stability and security of our region,” she said.
Senator Payne urged the Solomon Islands to approach Australia if there were any gaps in security they needed filled, rather than signing deals with China.
“We believe that the Pacific Family… best placed to provide security assistance to Solomon islands and we stand ready to assist further if that is needed,” she said.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said there needed to be a clear plan from government about what to do if the pact was formalised.
“It is gravely concerning for Australia’s interests that this agreement enables an enhanced Chinese security presence 1,500 kilometres from our shore,” she said.
“Mr Morrison needs to explain how this has happened – and what he plans to do about it.”
Senator Wong’s comments are the latest in an attack from Labor over the government’s Pacific Step Up failing to ensure Australia, not China, was the “partner of choice”.
Some Labor MPs have pointed the finger at the Morrison government’s lackluster climate policies, which have stoked tensions with Pacific nations facing rising sea levels.
Mr Sogavare on Tuesday said larger countries were not concerned if Pacific islands went under water, with the Solomon Islands being made to feel like “the backyard of big Western powers”.
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