Pentagon warns China-Solomon Islands security deal could be destabilising

The US Defence Department said the pact could ‘set a concerning precedent for the wider Pacific Island region’

Australia this week sent a minister to Honiara in a bid to prevent the island nation from officially signing the agreement

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Chinese officers train the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force in unarmed combat skills. File photo: RSIPF via AFP

Published: 10:19am, 15 Apr 2022

The US Defence Department on Thursday expressed concern over a possible security pact between China and the Solomon Islands, saying it leaves the door open for deployment of Chinese military forces to the Pacific nation.

“We believe that signing such an agreement could actually increase destabilisation within the Solomon Islands and could set a concerning precedent for the wider Pacific Island region,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a press conference.

“Obviously we are concerned about this,” he added.

The move is raising concerns among foreign policy experts that the island country could become China’s military foothold in the South Pacific, posing a threat to Australia. The Solomon Islands switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019.

The island government has denied that China will build a base in its country.

Beijing has already militarised outposts in disputed areas of the South China Sea – parts of which are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam – and has carried out repeated incursions into waters around the disputed islands known in Japan as the Senkakus but in China as the Diaoyus.

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