The scheme, engineered to claw back funds supposedly overpaid to welfare recipients, was broken and cruel from the start. Despite a royal commission’s findings, its political backers are unlikely to face punishment.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has spoken with Solomon Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeremiah Manele on plans for an US embassy in the Pacific country after news of a draft security pact with China emerged in the past few weeks.
The two officials also talked about “joint efforts to broaden and deepen engagement between our countries in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in February said that the US planned to open an embassy in Honiara, the island