{"id":72053,"date":"2022-04-21T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=72053"},"modified":"2022-04-21T05:44:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T19:44:18","slug":"australia-can-still-win-solomon-islands-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-can-still-win-solomon-islands-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia can still win Solomon Islands over"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

China\u2019s treaty on security cooperation with Solomon Islands has two key purposes. First, it helps to extend the military reach of the People\u2019s Liberation Army, complicating America\u2019s task of moving its own forces through the Pacific. Second, Beijing gets the joy of damaging Australia\u2019s security interests, because now we must plan on a threat from the east that can watch and potentially target our military bases.<\/p>\n

Nothing could amuse Xi Jinping more than to see Labor blame Prime Minister Scott Morrison for failing to stop China from undermining the sovereignty of the Solomons by co-opting its prime minister.<\/p>\n

It turns out the members of our \u2018Pacific family\u2019 have minds and agendas of their own.<\/p>\n

The real test for the Australian government is to develop a strategy to ensure that a Chinese military base isn\u2019t built and that Honiara decides by itself to embrace a closer security relationship with us. Securing that outcome will be difficult because Beijing will move quickly to create \u2018facts on the ground\u2019. Probably before our 21 May federal election is over, PLA cargo aircraft and ships will arrive in Honiara with material to provide the \u2018logistical replenishment\u2019, \u2018stopover and transition in Solomon Islands\u2019 and to carry out the \u2018major projects\u2019 described in the leaked draft agreement.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s policy failure is not that we failed to disrupt a Chinese covert operation. It\u2019s much broader than that. For decades, we have overestimated our influence in the Pacific, underinvested in promoting our security and failed to appreciate China\u2019s strategic intent.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s defence policy, released in 2020, sets three fundamental goals: to shape Australia\u2019s strategic environment; to deter actions against our interests; and to respond with credible military force, when required.<\/p>\n

We have failed in all three aims. We are not shaping the views of our neighbours and we have failed to deter Chinese adventurism in any practical sense. Our \u2018credible military force\u2019 is as busy as a defence force could be doing disaster relief and helping with the Covid-19 response, but when it comes to operating in the region, Defence is slow, hesitant, late and limited.<\/p>\n

After the election, the Solomons\u2019 lesson should force an immediate and urgent rethink about how to add grunt to the \u2018shape, deter, respond\u2019 mantra. The starting point should be to act with focused intensity to shore up our threatened strategic interests in the Pacific. We need to stop wringing our hands about China\u2019s money politics in the region and accept that the leadership we claim will cost money.<\/p>\n

This week Morrison announced that an extra two patrol boats will be built for the navy. Defence Minister Peter Dutton should go to Honiara and offer to base them there in a shared Australia\u2013Solomons facility.<\/p>\n

Diplomatically, we should be working with other Pacific island governments to develop a shared view of the risks China presents to the region. This means dropping the usual niceties behind closed doors to set out in stark terms how a micro-state can be subverted with Beijing\u2019s money, lose its sovereignty and find itself beholden to the bosses of the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n

Morrison\u2019s extra patrol boat announcement is a great example of what can be done if the focus is building more defence capability for the short term rather than the 2030s. The government should reverse its ill-considered decision to scrap the SkyGuardian plan for armed Reaper drones operating by 2025.<\/p>\n

That would make it possible for the Australian Border Force to buy the maritime version of the same drone\u2014a plan it has been forced to shelve because of the Reaper decision. Putting aside the Australian Greens\u2014who are also happy to blame Beijing\u2019s perfidy on our own government\u2014does anyone doubt the need for stronger maritime surveillance to our east?<\/p>\n

Solomon Islands can be persuaded to shelve the China deal. It will take focused effort on our part and more money than we would like to spend, but we have been short-changing defence for decades\u2014another achievement of the great Australian bipartisan project to be asleep at the wheel of our own security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s treaty on security cooperation with Solomon Islands has two key purposes. 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