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Agence France-Presse

Solomon Islands on Friday aired reservations about a landmark Pacific policing deal brokered by Australia, saying it should not preclude them from working alongside new-found ally China.
“There is one thing that is not so much nagging us, but it’s of concern,” Foreign Minister Peter Agovaka said on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga.
“The only thing that we do not agree to, is that it imposes conditions on our own domestic security.
“I don’t think another sovereign state should put conditions on another sovereign state.”
US ally Australia convinced its Pacific neighbours to back an initiative giving it a greater role training the region’s scattered and stretched police forces.
Hailed as a “godsend” by nations such as Fiji, others closer to Beijing appeared far more reluctant to get on board.
Agovaka said offers of policing help from Australia had come with strings attached.
“Conditions like not allowing our police officers who are trained under Australia to be again trained under the Chinese police.”
The forum’s final declaration released on Friday gave hesitant nations the power to decide how involved – or not – they would be in the proposal while acknowledging the need for further “national consultation”.
Leaders on Wednesday unveiled the plan to create up to four regional police training centres and a multinational crisis reaction force, backed by US$271 million in initial funding from Australia.
Under the plan, a corps of about 200 officers drawn from different Pacific Island nations could be dispatched to regional hotspots and disaster zones when needed and invited.
Canberra and Washington were caught napping in 2022 when Beijing signed a secretive security pact with Solomon Islands – the details of which still largely remain under wraps.


China now maintains a small but conspicuous police presence in Solomon Islands, sending a revolving cadre of officers to train locals in shooting and riot tactics.
Agovaka also questioned Taiwan’s observer status within the region’s top political bloc and voiced unease about the participation of US territories Guam and American Samoa.
He said members should be “sovereign states”, not “states that are governed by another jurisdiction”.
“American Samoa and Guam are territories of the United States. So sometimes we are uncertain if they are speaking for Guam, for American Samoa, or for the United States.”
He confirmed the Solomons had been lobbying behind the scenes to downgrade Taiwan’s participation in future summits.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.
Pacific leaders also scored a small win on the issue of New Caledonia, where proposed electoral reforms earlier this year stoked deadly unrest.
Indigenous Kanak fear the voting reforms could crush their dreams of independence, a cause supported by many of the bloc’s 18 members.
A Pacific delegation plans to embark soon on a fact-finding mission to the riot-struck French territory, which is also a full forum member.
But they have yet to agree on a date and duration for the visit.


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Pacific nation leaders pose for a group picture at a summit in Tonga on August 29. Photo: EPA-EFE

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A washed-up shipwreck on the shoreline on the outskirts of Honiara, capital city of the Solomon Islands. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday of the “grave danger” rising sea levels posed to the Pacific islands. Photo: AFP

Pacific island leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (second from right) visits the Ha’atafu Beach, an area affected by the volcanic eruption and tsunami in 2022, in Tongatapu on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with his Tuvaluan counterpart Feleti Teo at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Australian Army soldiers disembarking a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft at Honiara airport, Solomon Islands, in November 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE / Australian Department of Defence 

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Solomons Islands police receive training from Chinese liaison officers in 2022. Photo: Royal Solomon Islands Police Force/Handout via AFP

Papua New Guinea police on parade in Port Moresby before 2018’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the city. Photo: AFP

A Chinese liaison officer trains Solomon Islands police in unarmed combat skills in 2022. Photo: Royal Solomon Islands Police Force/Handout via AFP

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Asia

Australasia

Foreign Minister Peter Agovaka expressed concern over the initiative, saying it ‘imposes conditions on our own domestic security’


Foreign Minister Peter Agovaka expressed concern over the initiative, saying it ‘imposes conditions on our own domestic security’.


Australia