PM talks up bond

We’re here because we are family with the Pacific: Morrison

AUSTRALIA’S relationship with the Solomon Islands should not be seen in relation to the rivalry between China and the US in the Pacific, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stressed.

Mr Morrison made a series of announcements and met with Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare yesterday in what was the first visit to the Pacific nation by an Australian leader since 2008.

“We have got to be careful not to see what are ongoing and upgrading relationships here for Australia and the Pacific through those binary terms of the United States and China,” Mr Morrison said.

“They have their interests in the region, as do others.

“Our relationship with the Solomon Islands, our relationship with the Pacific, transcends all of that.” The US has recently expressed concern that China – with whom it is locked in a trade war – has been trying to influence Pacific nations’ diplomatic relationships with Taiwan.

Six Pacific island nations give diplomatic recognition to Taiwan, accounting for a third of its diplomatic allies.

But Chinese President Xi Jinping last week told the visiting prime minister of Vanuatu that his country is not seeking a sphere of influence among Pacific states.

Mr Morrison says it is entirely up to the Solomon Islands where it stands on Taiwan, which Beijing considers a sacred Chinese territory.

“They are an independent sovereign country who will make decisions in their national interests,” he said.

“It is not our place to provide advice or guidance on those decisions.”

The Prime Minister announced funding to give Solomon Islanders an easier path to get work in Australia, and a bilateral infrastructure program worth up to $250 million in grant financing over 10 years. “We’re here because we are family with the Pacific,” he said.