Better diplomacy is needed to curb China’s Pacific push

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The security agreement China signed with Solomon Islands represents a clear defeat for Australian diplomacy and both Labor and the Coalition should start talking about a stronger and smarter response.

Australian officials have admitted they are deeply disappointed the Solomons signed the deal this week giving China a first foothold in the South Pacific, just 2000 kilometres from Australia astride strategic sea lanes in a region which Australia considers its backyard.

The terms of the deal allow China to send police and troops to defend its interests in the Solomons. Chinese officials in Beijing could barely contain their delight when they announced the signing.

The Coalition can argue with some justification that it has been preparing for a Chinese push into the region for years with its “step up” policy that offered more aid and investment to our Pacific “family”.

Since the terms of the deal were leaked, at the end of last month, the ALP says the government’s response has been flat-footed. Australia has only sent the relatively junior Minister for Development and the Pacific Zed Seselja on a brief low-key trip to talk to Solomons’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

The US by contrast has sent, or is sending, two of its top diplomats, national security adviser Kurt Campbell and assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, to the region to express their concerns about the deal.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne was asked on Wednesday on ABC TV why she or Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not jump on a plane to the capital of Honiara but her only explanation was that they had gone there before.

The government has defended its restrained response by arguing that the Solomons is a sovereign country and it could be counter-productive to do anything that could be interpreted as bullying.

Yet Payne would only have shown respect by taking the trouble of flying to Honiara to tell Sogavare face-to-face how seriously Australia takes the issue. She could also have used the trip to speak through the media to the public in the Solomons and broader Pacific about the risks for them in becoming dependent on China both economically and for their security.

She could have contrasted Australia’s long record of economic aid and support for democracy and good governance with China’s very patchy record in other developing countries around the world.



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