March 25, 2022
SYDNEY—When the U.S. last month said it would open an embassy in the Solomon Islands, it aimed to demonstrate its renewed engagement in the Pacific region. Behind the scenes, however, Solomon Islands officials were courting another big power: China.
A virtual meeting last week concluded with the Solomon Islands and China signing an agreement to work together on law enforcement, around three months after Beijing offered nonlethal equipment and to train local police in the wake of violent protests.
A document circulated online Thursday suggests China and the Solomon Islands are crafting a broader security pact that could have far-reaching strategic implications for years to come.
How the U.S. and regional allies including Australia respond to closer security ties between the Solomon Islands and China is a test of their ability to contain Beijing and maintain the dominance they have held in the Pacific since the end of World War II.
Increasing activity in the region as part of China’s ambitious “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure initiative has prompted both the U.S. and Australia to re-engage with the Pacific.
Western nations are worried that small Pacific Island countries will be swayed by China’s promise of loans to build infrastructure, such as government buildings and courts. In doing so, China can gain leverage over less-powerful nations and bind them to its strategic goals.
China has chalked up several diplomatic wins in the Pacific in recent years, notably persuading the Solomon Islands to switch its allegiance to Beijing, from Taiwan.
The draft document, titled as a framework agreement on security cooperation, states that the Solomon Islands could ask China to send armed police and military personnel to quell unrest. Beijing could be brought for other missions, including disaster response. It also said the Solomon Islands could let Chinese naval ships dock in the country and allow Chinese forces to protect major projects and Chinese citizens working there.
“This is the strongest evidence you will ever need that the Chinese Communist Party has very expansionist objectives in our region,” said James Paterson, an Australian lawmaker who chairs the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. “Those are in direct contradiction to our own national interests.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison signaled Australia knew about the security pact, underscoring why it had been so active in the Pacific region, which contains more than a dozen small island nations and territories. It is a strategically important area, boasting major shipping lanes and fisheries. It is also home to military bases of Western powers, such as in Guam, a remote U.S. territory. The U.S. is opening a marine base there, the first one in 70 years.
Any security pact with China would be the same as existing agreements with countries like Australia, said Karen Galokale, secretary for the Ministry of Police, National Security and Correctional Services in the Solomon Islands, on Thursday.
However, security experts pointed to key differences in the draft document with China compared with arrangements with Australia.
“We don’t have any standing arrangement to store logistical equipment and turn up any time according to our needs, and use our forces within their territories according to our needs,” said Michael Shoebridge, director of defense, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a government-backed security think tank.
Australia last month accused the Chinese navy of shining a military-grade laser at a surveillance plane. It was the latest escalation of tensions between the two nations over issues such as trade, cybersecurity and political interference.
Such military tension could become routine if the Solomon Islands lets the Chinese military use the country as a place to replenish its ships and provide logistics support, Mr. Shoebridge said.
Australia said it fears China could also seek to build on any security agreement. One worrying example would be an attempt by Beijing to have a permanent military presence on the island, which is home to around 690,000 people and is a three-hour plane ride from Australia’s northeast coast.
“We would be concerned, clearly, about any military base being established and we’d express that to the Solomon Islands government,” said Peter Dutton, Australia’s defense minister.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, visiting the region in February, said the planned opening of a U.S. Embassy in the Solomon Islands would herald greater investment in the Indo-Pacific. “That includes in the Pacific islands, because what happens here matters to the U.S.,” he said.
Last month, the White House released its formal Indo-Pacific strategy, which called out Beijing for using economic, diplomatic, military and technological might to expand its clout.
Australia has increased aid to the Pacific, including spending millions on procuring and delivering Covid-19 vaccines, and has supported initiatives to address impacts of climate change. Earlier this year it sent a warship to take humanitarian and disaster-relief supplies to Tonga following a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.
Australia also responded to a Solomon Islands request in November to send a peacekeeping force to help restore order after several buildings were set alight during violent protests, including in the China Town district of the capital, Honiara, where recent migrants from China own businesses. The protests stemmed, in part, from dissatisfaction over a lack of jobs.
Ashley Townshend, a security expert at the United States Studies Centre, part of the University of Sydney, said the leaking of the security pact draft could galvanize Australia to make an offer to the Solomon Islands to prevent the agreement from going ahead.
In 2018, Australia pressured the Solomon Islands to drop China’s Huawei Technologies Co. from a project to build an undersea high-speed internet cable. Australia largely funded the cable’s construction instead.
“The potential for Chinese economic influence, both overt and covert, to slide into political influence, and then on to strategic military influence is the pathway that is the worry here,” Mr. Townshend said.
