At a carefully choreographed press conference in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a promise that will be bookmarked by diplomats and analysts in capitals around the world. But even though Wang scotched suggestions of a military facility in the Solomon Islands, a veil of secrecy and opacity over specific Chinese plans β heightened by restrictions on the press covering his visit in Honiara β has led to a series of unanswered questions in the region.
Does the security pact with the Solomon Islands allow Beijing to send warships to Honiara, as a leaked draft suggests? Is China pressuring other Pacific Island nations to sign on to a regional version of that agreement, as another leaked memo indicates? On Friday, the Solomon Islands government confirmed the sides had signed a number of agreements related to visa waivers for diplomats and officials, civil aviation, disaster risk reduction and health cooperation.
The texts of the agreements have not been publicly released. Some things are clear, though. On this trip too, governments of Pacific Island nations are expected to seek Chinese support on everything from infrastructure projects to the post-pandemic recovery of their fragile economies. Last week, the Financial Times reported that China is in talks with the governments of both Kiribati and Vanuatu for security pacts.
Brian Orme, a former opposition spokesperson in Kiribati, said that current President Taneti Maamau enjoys broad public support and would be politically able to push through a security deal with China if he wanted to. Orme said he believes China intends to potentially set up two bases in Kiribati β a move that the US would almost certainly view as a provocation.
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The US and its allies are not standing by. Apart from the visits to the region by Blinken and now Wong, the leaders of the US and Australia also met with their counterparts from India and Japan for a session of the Quad grouping in Tokyo early this week.
