An island chain in the South Pacific leaves Western governments scrambling after it agrees to a security pact with China.
President David W. Panuelo implored Sogavare to consider the “far-reaching and grave security implications” of the China agreement.
Beijing has accused Washington of promoting a “cold war mentality” in the Indo-Pacific through initiatives such as, a security partnership with Australia and Britain that the Biden administration announced last year. Even before the China agreement was leaked online, the U.S. said it planned to reopen its embassy in the Solomon Islands for the first time since 1993.
“The links with China are centered on one individual, Sogavare, and are increasingly unpopular across Solomons. The country is one free and fair election away not just from abrogating the security agreement, but from flipping back to Taiwan,” she said. “The West is really, really anxious” about China’s growing influence in the region, he said, “and it’s playing into the Solomons government’s hands. They’re trying to create a situation where they can leverage the West as well as the P.R.C. to see if the country can gain as much from it as possible.”
Iati Iati, Pacific security fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, told NBC News he doesn’t see “the same level of alarm” among Pacific island nations as in Australia and New Zealand. “They speak about respecting Pacific Island countries’ sovereignty, but then assert that they know what’s best for these countries’ security needs,” Iati said. “Responses from Australian and New Zealand government circles reek of neo-colonial sentiments that Pacific island countries appear to have grown tired of.”
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