- Although there will be no military presence, the Chinese president says that his country "strongly supports the Solomon Islands".
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| Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister. |
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has confirmed that he "has no intention" of building a military base in the Solomon Islands, where he landed on Thursday. This is information that indicates that Beijing is seeking to reach an ambitious security pact with countries in the area.
Wang, who begins a ten-day tour of eight countries (Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor) in the Solomons, declared that China "firmly supports the Solomon Islands in safeguarding their sovereignty national, security and territorial integrity”, he wanted to make it clear that he will not build a military base on the islands, as reported by AFP.
#BREAKING China says it has 'no intention' to build military base in Solomon Islands pic.twitter.com/VgfYfZ20pT
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 26, 2022
The trip comes just over a month after Beijing and Honiara confirmed they had signed an opaque security pact, which opened the door to sending Chinese security forces to the island nation.
"New Silk Road"
However, today's text from the Chinese Foreign Ministry makes no explicit mention of the pact, which the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and other nations feared would meet the military requirement and which ultimately will not happen.
"The Chinese side is committed to working with the Solomon Islands to implement the consensus reached between the leaders of both countries and raise bilateral relations to a higher level," the text only underlines.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry also refers in it to the plans of both parties to cooperate in the fight against climate change or in the development of projects within the framework of the "New Silk Road", the mega plan of investment in infrastructures Chinese.
“Respond” to China's moves
Coinciding with Wang's trip to Honiara, some international media, including the Australian agency AAP, revealed that Beijing has drawn up an ambitious plan that offers these Pacific islands to strengthen cooperation in "traditional and non-traditional bilateral security".
China would also aim to strengthen cooperation in the exploitation of marine resources and access to natural resources, as well as police training of island countries, according to the document.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday that his country has to "respond" to China's moves to increase its influence in the Pacific, as his foreign minister travels to Fiji today to try to counter Beijing's growing influence...