US to reopen Solomon Islands embassy in effort to counter China

Washington unveils strategy to push back against Beijing's attempts to build influence in the Pacific region

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Nadi, Fiji, for a meeting with leaders of Pacific nations. Photo: AFP

The US said it will open an embassy in the Solomon Islands in an effort to increase its influence in the South Pacific nation before China becomes “strongly embedded” there.

The plan was confirmed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday during a visit to Fiji on a Pacific tour that began in Australia.

Mr Blinken left Fiji for Hawaii, where he will host the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea to discuss the threat posed by North Korea, amid rising concerns over its recent missile tests.

The State Department said Solomon Islanders cherished their history with Americans on the battlefields of the Second World War, 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.

Rioting rocked the nation of 700,000 in November. It grew from a peaceful protest and highlighted long-simmering regional rivalries, economic problems and concerns about the country’s increasing links with China after it switched allegiance from the self-ruled island of Taiwan to Beijing three years ago. Rioters set fire to buildings and looted stores.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare survived a no-confidence vote the following month. In a 90-minute speech, he said that he had done nothing wrong and would not bow down to “the forces of evil” or to “Taiwan’s agents”.

The US operated an embassy in the Solomons for five years before closing it in 1993. Since then, US diplomats from neighbouring Papua New Guinea have been accredited to the Solomons, which has a US consular agency.

The embassy announcement fits with a new Biden administration strategy for the Indo-Pacific that was announced on Friday and emphasises building partnerships with allies in the region as a way to counter China’s influence and ambitions.

In its notification to Congress, the State Department said China had been “utilising a familiar pattern of extravagant promises, prospective costly infrastructure loans, and potentially dangerous debt levels” when engaging with political and business leaders from the Solomon Islands.

The State Department said it did not expect to build a new embassy immediately but would at first lease space at an initial set-up cost of $12.4 million. The embassy would be located in the capital, Honiara, and would start small, with two US employees and about five local staff.

It said the Peace Corps planned to reopen an office in the Solomon Islands and have its volunteers serve there, and that several US agencies were establishing government positions with portfolios in the Solomons.

“The department needs to be part of this increased US presence, rather than remaining a remote player,” it wrote.

During his visit to Fiji, Mr Blinken met acting prime minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and other Pacific leaders to talk about regional issues, especially the risk posed by climate change. It was the first visit by a US secretary of state to Fiji since 1985.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said he welcomed renewed US engagement and President Joe Biden’s move last year to rejoin the Paris climate agreement. In the past, he said, Pacific island nations had sometimes felt overlooked by larger nations as “flyover” countries.

“Small dots spotted from plane windows of leaders, en route to meetings where they spoke about us rather than with us, if they spoke of us at all,” he said.

Mr Blinken and the Pacific leaders also spoke about the coronavirus pandemic and disaster assistance.

He visited Fiji after leaving the Australian city of Melbourne, where he had a meeting with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan. The four nations form the so-called Quad, a bloc of Indo-Pacific democracies that was created to address China’s regional influence.