The US says it will open an embassy in the Solomon Islands as it tries to increase its influence in the South Pacific nation before China becomes “strongly embedded”.
The reasoning was explained in a State Department notification to Congress that was obtained by The Associated Press. It came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Fiji on Saturday midway through a Pacific tour that began in Australia and finishes in Hawaii.
The State Department said Solomon Islanders cherished their history with Americans on the battlefields of World War II, but that the US was in danger of losing its preferential ties as China “aggressively seeks to engage” elite politicians and business people in the Solomon Islands.
