By Rhod Mackenzie
At the NATO summit in Vilnius, which is also attended by the leaders of four Asian states - allies of the United States and the North Atlantic Alliance: Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, China has prepared a surprise for Washington's South Pacific allies and, of course, for America itself - it signed an agreement on expanding cooperation in the field of security and law and order with the Solomon Islands. The unpleasantness of the surprise lies in the fact that the traditional partners and allies of this archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, located 2 thousand kilometers northeast of Australia, were previously considered Australia, New Zealand and the United States, which, with the exception of New Zealand, are included in the trilateral ( together with Great Britain) defense alliance AUKUS, which does not hide its orientation against the Celestial Empire. Details of the agreement
The rapprochement between Honiara (the capital of the Solomon Islands) and Beijing began quite recently. Until 2019, the Solomon Islands had diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but four years ago they severed them and established relations with Beijing. Almost simultaneously, by the way, the neighboring island nation of Kiribati did the same.
Last year, the Solomon Islands signed a secret agreement with China. In Washington, Canberra and Wellington, they fear that the Chinese have received permission to deploy their military on the islands. Officially, it is still known that Beijing is preparing police officers for Honiara and supplying them with equipment. The archipelago, which consists of 6 more or less large and almost 900 small islands, on which about 700 thousand people live, has a rich and turbulent history with uprisings and riots on an ethnic basis. Previously, Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific island states helped restore order to local authorities. Now it seems that they will be replaced by China, which, as usual, is already energetically providing economic assistance to the islanders with an emphasis on building infrastructure. Beijing, for example, gave Honiara a $66 million loan to build 161 mobile towers. Chinese builders are also building a stadium and sports facilities that will host this year's Pacific Games.
China's total assistance to the countries of the Pacific region is only approx. 4% of its total foreign aid, but Beijing uses this aid strategically in a very logical and sensible way. The money is mainly used to build infrastructure that is "visible" to the population. In addition, on average, the amount of funding for Chinese projects exceeds that of all other donors, which also favorably distinguishes China.
China has also already become the island kingdom's largest trading partner. It completely absorbs Solomon's exports of wood, minerals, fish and palm oil and provides them with everything from pots and pans to plastic children's toys.
Beijing's interest in the Solomon Islands is explained by their proximity to Guam, where one of the largest US naval bases is located, and, of course, Australia and New Zealand. Not surprisingly, in the Solomon Islands you can often see ... Chinese research ships. Chinese scientists explore the fauna of the region and pay great attention to the study of the seabed. This information could be very useful for the Chinese submarine fleet in the event of a conflict between America and China.
Of course, the most serious negative consequence of the rapprochement between China and the Solomon Islands for the United States, Australia and New Zealand will be the construction of a Chinese naval base on one of the islands of the archipelago.
The United States once again missed the actions of China and now, of course, they are trying to rectify the situation. The US is reopening an embassy in Honiara and is going to pay more attention to the region.
In January 2022, Washington agreed with Australia to build a joint military base on Manus Island in New Guinea, which, by the way, receives significant assistance from Beijing. Washington is also persuading those Pacific countries that still have diplomatic relations with Taiwan not to break them and not go over to the camp of mainland China.
Of course, Americans are most concerned about the military component of the friendship between Beijing and Honiara. In May last year, then Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China had no plans to build military installations in the Solomon Islands, but the situation could change very quickly these days. The threat of a Chinese military base appearing at hand (taking into account the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean) of the US South Pacific allies remains quite real.
This article originally appeared in Russian at expert.ru