US reopens embassy in Solomons to counter China

The United States reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands on Thursday in its latest move to counter China’s push into the Pacific.

The embassy in the capital Honiara is starting small, with a chargé d’affaires, a couple of US State Department staff and a handful of local employees. Washington previously operated an embassy in the Solomon Islands for five years before closing it in 1993 as part of a global reduction in diplomatic posts after the end of the Cold War.

But China’s bold moves in the region prompted the US to increase its engagement in a number of ways, such as donating coronavirus vaccines, bringing back Peace Corps volunteers to several island nations, and investing in forestry and tourism projects.

“The opening of the embassy builds on our efforts not only to place more diplomatic personnel throughout the region, but also to engage further with our Pacific neighbors, connect United States programs and resources with needs on the ground, and build peopleto-people ties,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The opening comes as Fiji’s new Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka appears to be reassessing some aspects of his nation’s engagement with China. Rabuka told The Fiji Times newspaper last week he planned to end a police training and exchange agreement with China.

The US State Department notified lawmakers early last year that China’s growing influence in the region made reopening the Solomon Islands embassy a priority. Since then, the Solomons has signed a security pact with Beijing, raising fears of a military buildup in the region, and Washington has countered it by sending several high-level delegations.

The Solomon Islands switched allegiance from the self-ruled island of Taiwan to Beijing in 2019, threatening the close ties with the US that date to World War 2.

“We are seeing this bond weaken as the People’s Republic of China aggressively seeks to engage Solomon Islands’ political and business elites, utilizing a familiar pattern of extravagant promises, prospective costly infrastructure loans, and potentially dangerous debt levels,” the department said in a December notice to Congress that was obtained by The Associated Press (AP).

A senior State Department official who insisted on anonymity to brief the media said the US had been encouraged by the Solomons’ commitment to continue working with traditional security partners, such as Australia and the US, but remained concerned about the secrecy surrounding the security agreement with China.

Any type of militarization in the Pacific by China would be a great concern, he added.

The official also said the US was yet to have deep conversations with the new Fijian leadership, so it was too early to tell if the move on policing signaled a change in direction for Fiji on China.

The Fijian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.