The Solomon Islands security pact with China

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said on Tuesday that “the foreign ministers of China and the Solomon Islands officially signed the framework agreement on security cooperation recently.” The details of the agreement are not yet known though a leaked document says that China police could be deployed to maintain “social order” if the Solomon Islands government asks for it. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said the security pact was signed on Tuesday, and he said that the deal was necessary to deal with the “internal security situation”.

He said that there was no intention to ask the Chinese to build a military base, and that the deal was guided by our national interests.” Both Australia and the United States are opposed to it, and they have tried to stop the pact from being signed. Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific flew to the Solomon Islands on April 13 to dissuade Prime Minister Sogavare from signing the pact. And United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held discussions with the Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele about reopening the American embassy in the country and also to “broaden and deepen engagement between our two countries in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” according to a State Department statement on April 12.

There are two interesting aspects to the security pact. One of them is that when Sogavare won the election n 2019 and became prime minister, he cut off diplomatic ties with Taiwan and switched to China. This was not approved by many in the Solomon Islands, especially by the largest province, Malaita, and its premiere, Daniel Suidani opposed it. There were riots in November last year, and it was a reaction to the switch that  Sogavare made from Taiwan to China.

The other interesting aspect of the security pact is that it is about internal security and not about external threat perception of the Solomon Islands as is generally the case when two countries sign a security pact. During the November 2021 riots, it was the Australian police who helped restore order after the riots. Australia had a security pact with the Solomon Islands since 2017. In 2003, the Solomon Islands requested help from the Pacific Islands Forum, and a Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) was set up, led by Australia and it remained in the Solomon Islands for 14 years.

Sogavare defended the deal with China when he told parliament on Wednesday, “We intend to beef up and strengthen our police capability to deal with any future instability by properly equipping the police to take full responsibility of the country’s security responsibilities, in the hope we will never be required to invoke any of our bilateral security arrangements.”

But what is concern to Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States is the presence of China in the Solomon Islands, a country of 700,000 and hundreds of islands, lying in the Pacific Ocean. While China is talking about investments in the islands, the other countries in the region believe that China will destabilise the security balance. Opposition leader Matthew Wale was quoted by the Solomon Star newspaper as saying, “All the drivers of instability, insecurity, and even threats to national unity in Solomon Islands are entirely internal.

This means that the deal, in giving opportunity to military posturing by China, has nothing to do with Solomon Islands national security.” It just goes to show that the high drama of geopolitics is being played out in the far corners of the world, and Solomon Islands is situated in one of the corners, though is strategically close to Australia, New Zealand and Japan.