15.04.2022, Moscow.
A small Pacific state of almost a thousand small islands a thousand and a half thousand kilometers from Australia, sharing an archipelago of the same name with neighboring Papua New Guinea, has become a subject of enormous interest in the region in recent weeks.
The US State Department even promised to open an embassy there; Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific suddenly flew to Honiara, the capital of the country – and this in the middle of an election campaign. All smaller neighbors, starting with New Zealand, had time to express their views on the policies of the Melanesian authorities.
Why all the excitement about a state whose population is barely over 650,000? Of course, it’s not about the country itself, but about the policy of the current prime minister Manasseh Sogavare toward China. In 2019, Sogaware stopped supporting “democratic Taiwan” and switched to Beijing. Such defiance culminated in the bloody riots of late 2021, in which China, on the one hand, and the closest neighbors of the Solomon Islands, led by Australia, on the other, deployed peacekeepers into Honiara.
But this was not the last move of Sogavare. Recently, information was leaked to the press about the security pact with China, which will allow warships to enter the islands, in case of disturbances – to land the Chinese military, and (although the leader of the Solomon Islands later denied this point) – there will be a full-fledged Chinese military base in the state.
The cherry on the cake for the Australian election is that the Solomon Islands authorities express their surprise that the agreement has become news to Australia, and say that they have long warned about the impending rapprochement. The Australian media vigorously accuse the authorities of short-sightedness and political impotence.
As they say, place your bets, gentlemen.
Translated from https://t.me/shotday/224
