Solomon Islands says security pact will not allow China to build military base

Solomon Islands has said it won’t allow China to build a military base as it seeks to counter international fears over its new security alliance with China. But that insistence will do little to ease concerns about the pact from the nation’s traditional partners that include New Zealand, Australia and the United States. The leader of Micronesia added his voice to those expressing trepidation by invoking the bloody battles of the second world war and warning that the pact could again see the South Pacific region become a battleground for…

‘Utter nonsense’: Solomon Islands PM says China is not a threat to regional stability – video

Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has dismissed foreign criticism of the country’s security negotiations with China as ‘insulting’ and called those who leaked the draft agreement ‘lunatics’, in his first comments to parliament on the proposed treaty. ‘We find it very insulting, Mr Speaker, to be branded as unfit to manage our sovereign affairs,’ Sogavare said ► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube The Guardian

Australia’s lost influence in Pacific on display in Solomon Islands-China deal, Anthony Albanese says

Australia has lost influence in the Pacific by failing to act on climate and cutting foreign aid, Anthony Albanese says, amid concerns about China’s proposed security deal with Solomon Islands. Australia and New Zealand are worried the draft agreement could jeopardise regional stability, with China having the opportunity to base navy warships in the Pacific less than 2,000km off the Australian coast. The prime minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, is due to address parliament in Honiara on Tuesday about security cooperation with China. But the leaking of the draft…

China finalising security deal with Solomon Islands to base warships in the Pacific

Solomon Islands has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration. According to a copy of the draft security agreement circulating on social media on Thursday, it would allow China to base navy warships in the Pacific, less than 2,000km off Australia’s coast. The arrangements are also likely to worry the United States, which said in February it would open an embassy in Solomon Islands after senior US administration officials expressed concern China wanted…

‘A blatant lie’: China and Taiwan fight for credit over rescue of sailors lost at sea for 29 days

Tensions between China and Taiwan have found an unlikely battleground – a fight over who rescued nine Papua New Guinean sailors who were lost at sea for nearly a month. The dispute came after the rescue of the Papua New Guinean nationals in Solomon Island waters after 29 days lost at sea, late in February. Credit for the mission was claimed by China in an article published in the Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper, on 26 February. The article claimed the ship’s captain called the Chinese embassy in Solomon…

US plans to reopen Solomon Islands embassy in push to counter China

The United States plans to re-establish an embassy in Solomon Islands, a senior US state department official said, as Washington seeks to beef up its presence in a region where China is rapidly expanding its influence. Secretary of state Antony Blinken is set to announce the opening of a new embassy on the Pacific island state during a visit to nearby Fiji – 29 years after the United States downgraded its diplomatic presence in Honiara. The move comes just a few months after riots in the island chain of 800,000…