Officials at the US foreign aid agency reacted with alarm to news of a controversial security pact between China and the Solomon Islands, describing the agreement as “very troubling” and “unfortunate”, newly released internal emails show.
The emails, obtained by Al Jazeera via a freedom of information request, reveal how officials at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) scrambled to respond to reports earlier this year that Beijing was seeking to bolster security ties with the tiny Pacific Island nation.
