SYDNEY, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – Australia urged Solomon Islands to rely on fellow Pacific nations for security assistance Wednesday during a visit by China-friendly Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele.
The Solomons leader was visiting Australia as part of a three-nation tour that will also take him to China and Japan.
It is Manele’s first official international trip since he replaced enthusiastic Beijing supporter Manasseh Sogavare as prime minister in May.
Sogavare switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing and later signed a 2022 secretive security pact with Beijing that raised Western concerns over China’s growing sway in the South Pacific.
“Australia and Pacific nations are well placed to meet the security needs of our region,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a joint news conference with Manele after their talks in Canberra.
“We regard security as the job of our Pacific family.”
Manele said the pair held “very frank discussions”, including on police training and security.
Solomon Islands was focused on its domestic security needs, he said.
“We are trying to address internal security challenges,” Manele told reporters.
“Of course, we do acknowledge that our security partners, China and Australia, they have security strategic interests as well,” he said.
“In our case, we see security through a development lens.”
China has been offering training and hardware to the Solomons police.
Local police, numbering 1,500 for a population of about 720,000, appeared overwhelmed when anti-government protests turned violent in Honiara in November 2021, leaving at least three people dead and much of the capital’s Chinatown district in ruins.
In a joint statement, Albanese and Manele said Australia was the Solomons’ “security partner of choice”.
The Pacific island nation asked Australia to help it to double the size of its police force to 3,000 over a decade, with a longer-term goal of reaching 5,000. The two sides agreed to work together on “next steps”.
“Australia’s continued support to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force will build Solomon Islands’ ability to meet its own security needs, and reduce its reliance on external partners,” their statement said.
Manele’s office has said he will visit China from early July to “reaffirm his government’s commitment to work with China in areas of mutual interest”.
