History shows that such benefits are often lip service or extremely costly. And once the Solomon Islands is seen as strategically not so useful in the eyes of Washington, perhaps not even a bit of
SYDNEY (Reuters) — China will send officials to the Solomon Islands next month to sign cooperation agreements, the Pacific nation s parliament was told on Tuesday, amid a backlash from the
It seems that the United States is throwing its weight behind Australia's bid to scupper the security cooperation agreement reached between China and the Solomon Islands, with Kurt Campbell, who serves as the US National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, reportedly paying a trip to the South Pacific nation this month.
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne yesterday said that a controversial security deal between the Solomon Islands and China would not spell the end of her country’s defense cooperation with the Pacific nation.
An existing bilateral security treaty between Australia and the Solomon Islands would continue even if the nation ignored entreaties from Canberra and signed a security pact with China, Payne told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
She said it was under this treaty “that the assistance force made up of Pacific family countries Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea went to the Solomon Islands at the end