Australia’s Albanese ‘very confident’ China military base won’t be built in Solomon Islands

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also said he had ‘constructive’ talks with Solomons’ leader Manasseh Sogavare at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji
Sogavare said a pact with Beijing would only be used if there was a ‘gap’ in the country’s security coverage which Canberra couldn’t meet

Australia

Bloomberg

Published: 10:30am, 14 Jul 2022

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he is “very confident” there won’t be a Chinese military base built in the Solomon Islands, after meeting with Solomons’ leader Manasseh Sogavare.

Albanese and Prime Minister Sogavare embraced warmly ahead of discussions on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji on Wednesday afternoon, their first meeting since the Australian leader was elected in May.

Australia has been a close security and economic partner of the Solomon Islands but the relationship was shaken in April by news that the Pacific nation had signed a security agreement with the Chinese government.

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A leaked draft version of the deal would allow Chinese warships safe harbour in the Solomon Islands, just 2,000km from Australia’s coast. Details of the final agreement have not been made public.

Albanese said his meeting with Sogavare had been “constructive”, during an appearance on Australia’s Today morning show on Thursday, adding he was “very confident” a Chinese military base would not be built in the Solomon Islands as a result of the new security agreement.

02:17

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Sogavare confirmed Australia would remain the Solomon Islands’ “security partner of choice” in an interview, The Guardian reported on Thursday.

Sogavare said the agreement with China would only be used if there was a “gap” in the country’s security coverage which Australia couldn’t meet.

A military base in the Solomon Islands would undermine regional security and “put our country and our people as targets for potential military strikes,” Sogavare said in the interview. “Let me assure you all again, there is no military base, nor any other military facility, or institutions in the agreement,” he said.

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Albanese said Australia respected the Solomon Islands as a “sovereign nation” which could make its own diplomatic agreements, however he had advocated to Sogavare on behalf of Canberra’s national interests.

“The interests of Australia would not be served by having a military base so close to where Australia is,” he said on Today.

In an effort to combat China’s growing influence in the Pacific, US Vice-President Kamala Harris announced increased funding for the region and an enlarged diplomatic presence in a virtual address to the Pacific Islands Forum on Wednesday.

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The Forum will wrap up with a leaders’ retreat and press conference on Thursday. Albanese is hoping to convince Pacific nations to support Australia’s bid to hold a United Nations COP climate conference in coming years, promoting his government’s commitment to further cut emissions by 2030.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Australia needed to be more ambitious in its commitment to fighting climate change.

“Out of the duty I owe every young person in the Pacific, I have urged @AlboMP to go further for our family’s shared future by aligning Australia’s commitment to the 1.5-degree target,” the Fiji leader said.