Deal sparks China fears
AUSTRALIA has been told to brace for Chinese ships and aircraft to arrive in Solomon Islands within weeks after the two nations signed a landmark security agreement.
Experts have expressed concern China would “move as fast as it can” to establish a foothold in the Pacific nation, in order to capitalise on the caretaker period.
The Lowy Institute’s Richard McGregor said Beijing would “move as fast as it can while they have a friendly leader in place in the Solomons to establish a physical foothold”.
“They would want to have boots on the ground and establish a concrete presence there – living quarters, possibly a small dock on the pretext of refuelling a supply ship,” the senior fellow for East Asia said, adding that, in the long-term, “China wants what the US has, which is a permanent military presence in the Pacific”.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Solomon Islands had categorically ruled out a military base being established under the agreement.
But Defence Minister Peter Dutton cast doubt on China’s plans.
“You can expect the Chinese to do all they can now that they‘ve got this agreement signed,” he told Sky News. “(China said) the South China Sea would not be militarised (and) today, they’re militarised. They’ve got airstrips. They’ve got fuel depots. And that’s the reality of China under President Xi.”
Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings said it would “probably” occur before the election. “For decades we have over-estimated our influence in the Pacific, under-invested in promoting our security and failed to appreciate China’s strategic intent,” he said.
Mr Morrison is under fire from Labor for not dispatching Foreign Minister Marise Payne to Honiara when the draft security agreement was leaked in March.
Pacific Minister Zed Seselja was sent to Solomon Islands last week in a failed last-ditch attempt to fend off the agreement.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese accused the Prime Minister of a failure on national security – an area that Mr Morrison believes is a vote winner for the Coalition.
Mr Dutton implored the Labor leader to stop “shooting from the hip” until he had all the facts.
“They haven’t had the intelligence briefings (that we’ve had),” the Defence Minister told Sunrise. “We have had those briefings and we have gone through what was known and what was available to us in what has been a delicate period and a very deliberate decision not to send Marise Payne.”
But confusion remains over if the government knew about the security pact before it was leaked online. On Wednesday, Mr Morrison said the deal didn’t surprise him, while Senator Seselja conceded Australia found out when the agreement was made public.
Asked about the apparent confusion, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham declined to say when the government was made aware of the deal.
“I’m not going to go into either the sensitivities and intelligence briefings or confidential discussions that we have government-to-government with other partners,” Senator Birmingham said.