By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Solomon Islands has denied suggestions by Australia and others its policing deal with Beijing is “a threat to the Pacific region peace” and says China will enhance the capability of its 1,500 police officers in cyber security and community policing.
The U.S., Australia and New Zealand have called for Solomon Islands to “immediately” publish details of the three-year policing deal signed in Beijing on Monday, during a week-long visit by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to China, amid concern it will invite further regional contest.
Chinese and Solomon Islands police ministers met on Tuesday, pledging to “promote China’s police and law enforcement co-operation to a new level”, Chinese media reported.
In a statement on Friday, Sogavare’s office said the Pacific Islands nation was broadening its security partnerships, and the Chinese police will add to the existing Australia and New Zealand policing support.
“No one has a monopoly of knowledge. Solomon Islands cooperation with China and all partners are based on the principles of equality and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she had “conveyed Australia’s clear views on security in the Pacific” in a meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Jakarta on Thursday night. Australia and New Zealand say Pacific security needs should be met within the region.
“Solomon Islands Government fails to see how the improvement of (Royal Solomon Islands Police Force) traffic control and management system in Honiara, provision of police equipment or the completion of the Forensic Autopsy Lab is a threat to the Pacific region peace and security,” said the statement from Sogavare’s office.
Riots in the capital Honiara in 2021 exposed gaps in the islands’ policing, it said.
Australian and New Zealand police deployed to Solomon Islands in response to the riots at Sogavare’s request, and previously led a decade-long international security force to maintain peace after the internal conflict.
In the week before his China visit, Sogavare announced Australia’s security treaty would be reviewed.
Solomon Islands struck a security pact with China in 2022. On his first visit to Beijing since the deal, Sogavare pledged support for China’s Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative policy, which pair Chinese infrastructure investment and security.
Solomon Islands has a population of 700,000, across an archipelago that occupies a strategic position in the Pacific Islands, and was pivotal to the U.S. move west across the Pacific to liberate the Philippines in World War Two.
Tensions over Taiwan have raised concerns in Washington and Canberra over China’s naval ambitions in the region.
Submarine cables and shipping routes vital to Australia’s communications links and export trade to North Asia also run through the islands.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
