Australia has been assured by Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare that its security agreement with China will not involve a Chinese military base being installed.
“I think they are very important assurances,” Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
She said such assurances had been the result of her, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Pacific Minister Zed Seselja’s discussions with it Pacific neighbour.
“We have been engaged in bilateral security work with the Solomon Islands work for a long time,” she said.
Senator Payne this came under the bilateral security treaty between the Solomon Islands and Australia, and backed New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, which went to the country at the end of last year to support it in dealing with the unrest that occurred at that time.
“Overwhelmingly, we believe that the Pacific family is best placed as responders to security issues in the Pacific region.
She said that security co-operation would continue, even if the agreement was signed by the Solomon Islands and China.
“But there is also a concern that there has been a lack of transparency in relation to this agreement and that it is something that should be discussed in a broader Pacific Island Forum context itself,” she said.
“Australia would support that discussion. Other countries have called for it as well.”
