{"id":36099,"date":"2017-12-06T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=36099"},"modified":"2017-12-06T08:58:22","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T21:58:22","slug":"whats-the-significance-of-australias-new-security-treaty-with-solomon-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/whats-the-significance-of-australias-new-security-treaty-with-solomon-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the significance of Australia\u2019s new security treaty with Solomon Islands?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Australian government has tabled the text of the security agreement<\/a> it signed with (former) Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare during his visit to Australia in August this year. The agreement has been billed as an important confidence-building measure following the conclusion of the 14-year Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) in June 2017 and the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force\u2019s resumption of responsibility for national security.<\/p>\n

The Treaties Committee of the Australian Parliament invited comment on the agreement in October, although it doesn\u2019t appear to have attracted any public submissions, and ratification should be a formality. On the Solomon Islands side, the agreement will need to be ratified by the National Parliament. Sogavare lost office in early November in a vote of no confidence, but his replacement, Rick Hou, is considered sympathetic towards Australia, and the Australian government can be confident that Hou will support ratification.<\/p>\n

Throughout RAMSI\u2019s time in Solomon Islands, an international agreement\u2014the \u2018RAMSI treaty<\/a>\u2019\u2014and associated Solomon Islands legislation\u2014the Facilitation of International Assistance Act<\/a>\u2014governed the mission\u2019s presence. While the act remains in force, the treaty lapsed with RAMSI\u2019s final withdrawal on 30 June 2017.<\/p>\n

The preamble of the new treaty notes the two countries\u2019 \u2018desire to establish a future basis upon which Australia may provide assistance to Solomon Islands in case of a major security challenge, humanitarian disaster or similar circumstances\u2019. That deliberate open-endedness about the circumstances under which the treaty might come into effect is echoed in Article 2, which outlines the scope of any Australian response. Australia may provide:<\/p>\n