Australia yesterday urged the Solomon Islands to rely on fellow Pacific nations for security assistance during a visit by China-friendly Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele.
Manele was visiting Australia as part of a three-nation tour that also takes him to China and Japan.
It is Manele’s first official international trip since he replaced enthusiastic Beijing supporter Manasseh Sogavare as prime minister last month.
Photo: Bloomberg
Sogavare switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing and in 2022 signed a security pact with Beijing that raised Western concerns about China’s growing sway in the South Pacific.
“Australia and Pacific nations are well placed to meet the security needs of our region,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a joint news conference with Manele after their talks in Canberra.
“We regard security as the job of our Pacific family,” he added.
Manele said the pair held “very frank discussions,” including on police training and security.
The Solomon Islands is focused on its domestic security needs, he said.
“We are trying to address internal security challenges,” Manele told reporters.
“Of course, we do acknowledge that our security partners, China and Australia, they have security strategic interests as well,” he said. “In our case, we see security through a development lens.”
China has been offering training and hardware to the Solomons police.
In a joint statement, Albanese and Manele said Australia was the Solomon Isalands’ “security partner of choice.”
The Pacific island nation asked Australia to help it to double the size of its police force to 3,000 over a decade, with a longer-term goal of reaching 5,000. The two sides agreed to work together on “next steps.”
“Australia’s continued support to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force will build Solomon Islands’ ability to meet its own security needs, and reduce its reliance on external partners,” their statement said.
Manele said that his visits to Australia and China are also focused on creating jobs in the developing South Pacific island nation.
“We are keen to work with all partners, with Australia and China, [on] how we can partner together to create transformational projects and programs in Solomon Islands that create jobs,” Manele said.
Additional reporting by AP
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS