Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Solomon Islands counterpart Manassah Sogavare in Beijing in October 2019
Image: AP
While an unsuspecting American delegation leaves for the Solomon Islands, China announces that it has signed a security agreement with the archipelago. But Washington is not letting up.
Dhe “Great Game” in the South Seas, which America and China are playing, has recently had something of the race between the hare and the hedgehog. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, asked on Wednesday whether the signing of the security agreement between Beijing and the Solomon Islands had been brought forward to forestall the arrival of the American delegation in the archipelago east of New Guinea, answered evasively. He wanted to emphasize what he had said the day before: the security cooperation between the two states is “open, transparent and comprehensive”. In addition, it is not aimed at a third party. The agreement complements the existing security cooperation mechanisms that the Solomon Islands maintain bilaterally and multilaterally. No cause for concern, that is to say.
The spokesman had already announced on Tuesday that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Jeremiah Manele, the archipelago’s chief diplomat, had signed an intergovernmental framework agreement on security cooperation – “recently”. It aims to promote “social stability” in the Solomon Islands and is mutually beneficial. He did not share details about how and when exactly the signing took place.
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