The Solomon Islands crisis is intensifying:
The Solomon Islands’ prime minister said Tuesday that a contentious security agreement with Beijing was “ready for signing”, denying reports that his country had been pressured to allow a Chinese naval base to be built in the Pacific island nation.
In an impassioned speech to parliament, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare offered little detail on the shape of the final deal beyond saying that there was “no intention whatsoever … to ask China to build a military base in the Solomon Islands”.
He dismissed reports in the Australian media that his country was being “pressured by the People’s Republic of China to build a military base in Solomon Islands”.
“Where does that nonsense come from? The security treaty … is pursued at the request of the Solomon Islands’ government,” he said.
Greg Sheridan wakes up:
The security agreement between Solomon Islands and China, so savagely defended by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in parliament this week, represents unequivocal failure for Australian policy.
It is a bad, perhaps disastrous, development for our security. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has for once got a strategic assessment right when she described the agreement as “gravely concerning”.
Australia’s intelligence agencies have known for years that Beijing has a serious ambition to establish a full military base in the South Pacific. There have been previous efforts with Vanuatu.
…Beijing’s purpose is to intimidate Australia and limit the options of the US.
It was a key war-time aim of Japan to isolate Australia from the US by occupying Pacific territories, specifically Guadalcanal in what is now the Solomons.
Yep. And not just intimidate. Control. There are three methods to it.
