“Broadening partnerships is needed to improve the quality of lives of our people and address soft and hard security threats facing the country,” the government said in a statement.

The proposed security arrangements with China would cover humanitarian needs besides maintaining the rule of law, it added.

‘We are less afraid’: in Solomons, a calm, but suspicions of China linger

A security agreement with Australia, signed in 2017, would be preserved as Solomon Islands deepened relations with Beijing, it said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had not spoken to his Solomon Islands counterpart in the 24 hours since news of the Pacific island’s security discussions with China were made public.

Australia and New Zealand were part of the “Pacific family” and talks were being held with Honiara, Morrison told reporters earlier on Friday.

“There are others who may seek to pretend to influence and may seek to get some sort of hold in the region and we are very conscious of that.”

At a regular media briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin did not confirm or deny the proposed cooperation when asked about it, but said Beijing backs the Solomon Islands in upholding social order.

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Australian troops and police deployed to Solomon Islands amid general unrest and Chinatown blaze

Australian troops and police deployed to Solomon Islands amid general unrest and Chinatown blaze

The 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, a Solomon Islands official said on Thursday.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton emphasised the close relationship between Australia and the Solomons. “We would be concerned clearly about any military base being established and we would express that to the Solomon Islands government,” he told Channel Nine on Friday.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement that Pacific partners should be transparent in their actions.

“Such agreements will always be the right of any sovereign country to enter into, however developments within this purported agreement could destabilise the current institutions and arrangements that have long underpinned the Pacific region’s security,” she said.

The ministers spoke out after a copy of the agreement was circulated on social media by a New Zealand academic on Thursday.

Australia’s vaccine diplomacy in Pacific islands eased tensions with China

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd told ABC Radio the proposed pact was “one of the most significant security developments that we have seen in decades and it’s one that is adverse to the country’s national security interests”.

A spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Pacific Island nations have “the right to make sovereign decisions.”

Still, “we would be concerned by any actions that destabilise the security of our region,” the spokesman said in a statement.

China has been growing its Pacific presence in the past decade, part of its global outreach to developing nations to build economic and security ties.

The Solomon Islands government under Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has strengthened ties with China in recent years, including a contentious decision to switch the country’s diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing in September 2019.

The change in foreign policy has been one of the factors in growing domestic unrest between Sogavare’s government and the province of Malaita, which led to riots in 2021.

Soon after news of the proposed security deal was made public, Australia’s High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands Lachie Strahan announced the peace keeping force deployed after the riots would remain in the country until December 2023, in addition to a number of additional measures.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg