China confirms signing of Solomon Islands security pact as US warns of regional instability
- Beijing says agreement ‘does not target any third party’ and is intended to promote peace and stability
- The US announces senior officials will visit Honiara, Australia presses its regional neighbour to step back from Beijing
The pact “does not target any third party” and is “parallel and complementary to the existing bilateral and multilateral security cooperation mechanisms” of the Solomon Islands, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
China was committed to helping the Solomons “strengthen its capacity building to maintain its own security”, with areas for cooperation to include “maintaining social order, protecting people’s lives and property, humanitarian assistance and natural disaster response”, Wang said.
03:01
Australian troops and police deployed to Solomon Islands amid general unrest and Chinatown blaze
Wang said the US reactions were “exaggerating tension and provoking confrontation”.
“What we are saying is that the Pacific island countries are not anyone’s backyard, let alone pawns in a geopolitical confrontation,” Wang said.
“Island countries have a practical need to diversify their external cooperation and the right to choose their own partners. Attempts to interfere and obstruct the island countries’ cooperation with China are also doomed to be futile.”
Wang said the US embassy in the Solomon Islands had been shut for 29 years and no US secretary of state had visited any Pacific island country for 37 years.
“After many years, the senior US officials suddenly are visiting a Pacific island country with great fanfare. We are curious whether they really care about the island country or have another agenda,” he said.
Wang said China had always been a constructor of peace and a promoter of stability in the South Pacific. He accused the US of “smearing China for no reason”, and seriously threatening regional security and stability by forging its trilateral security partnerships, introducing the risk of nuclear proliferation and a cold war mentality into the region.
