Australia must engage with Solomon Islands with mutual respect. It’s about so much more than keeping Beijing at bay |
When Matthew Wale won a parliamentary vote to become Solomon Islands’ prime minister last month, the questions came quickly: What does this mean for Beijing? Is this good news for Australia? When will the new PM tear up the 2022 security pact with China, sever ties with Beijing and declare Australia Solomon Islands’ best friend in perpetuity?
This pervasive framing treats a change of government in Honiara primarily as a development in Australia’s competition with China – a mistake Canberra should not repeat when Wale arrives for talks with Anthony Albanese on Wednesday. The important question is this: how can Australia be the partner Solomon Islands needs?
Wale’s choice of Canberra as his first official destination is being read as a signal – proof that Solomon Islands is tilting back toward Australia. But the destination choice is probably less revealing than it appears. Wale’s predecessor, Jeremiah Manele, who was a central figure in negotiating the 2022 security pact and was among Beijing’s most reliable allies in Pacific politics, also made Australia his first stop as prime minister, visiting Canberra in June 2024.
It’s true that Wale has spent years as a thorn in the side of his predecessors’ China policy. He criticised the 2022 security pact as “counterproductive to the security interests of........