The United States has announced the opening of an embassy in the Solomon Islands, laying out a plan to expand its influence in the South Pacific nation before China becomes “deeply embedded.”
Reporters obtained a State Department notification to Congress that outlined the explanation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed the proposal during a visit to Fiji on Saturday as part of a Pacific tour that began in Australia.
Blinken departed Fiji late Friday evening for Hawaii, where he will host the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea to discuss North Korea’s threat in the wake of its latest missile tests.
The State Department said Solomon Islanders loved their relationship with Americans on World War II battlefields, but that the US was in danger of losing preferential treatment as China “aggressively strives to engage” the Solomon Islands’ elite leaders and business people.
The action comes after riots rocked the 700,000-strong country in November. After switching allegiance from the self-ruled island of Taiwan to Beijing three years ago, the riots erupted, highlighting long-simmering regional rivalries, economic issues, and fears about the country’s growing ties with China. Buildings were set on fire, and stores were plundered.
The following month, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare survived a no-confidence vote by declaring lawmakers that he’d done nothing wrong and would not bow down to “the forces of evil” or “Taiwan’s emissaries” in a heated 90-minute address.
The United States had a five-year embassy in the Solomon Islands before closing it in 1993. Since then, Papua New Guinean ambassadors have been accredited to the Solomon Islands, which have a US consular service.
The unveiling of the embassy is in line with a new Biden administration strategy for the Indo-Pacific, which stresses strengthening partnerships with regional allies as a method to challenge China’s expanding influence and ambitions.
When dealing with political and commercial leaders from the Solomon Islands, China had been “using a familiar pattern of lavish promises, potentially costly infrastructure loans, and possibly dangerous debt levels,” according to the State Department’s notice to Congress.
The State Department noted, “The United States has a strategic interest in strengthening our political, economic, and commercial engagement with the Solomon Islands, the biggest Pacific Island nation without a US Embassy.”
The State Department said it didn’t anticipate establishing a new embassy right away, but would instead lease premises for $12.4 million in the beginning. The embassy would be based in Honiara, the capital, and would begin small, with two American employees and perhaps five local staffers.
According to the State Department, the Peace Corps plans to reopen an office in the Solomon Islands and send its volunteers there, and numerous US agencies are establishing government positions in the Solomons.
“Rather than remaining a distant actor, the Department needs to be a part of this increasing US involvement,” it stated.
Blinken met with Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and other Pacific leaders during his visit to Fiji to discuss regional challenges, particularly the existential threat presented by climate change. It was the first time since 1985 that a US secretary of state has visited Fiji.
Sayed-Khaiyum praised the United States’ enhanced involvement in the area, as well as President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement last year. He claimed that in the past, Pacific island states had been treated as “flyover” countries by larger governments.
“Small dots noticed from leaders’ plane windows on route to meetings where they talked about us instead of with us if they talked about us at all,” he claimed.
Blinken and the Pacific leaders discussed the coronavirus epidemic as well as disaster relief. The visit, however, was overshadowed by rising tensions in Ukraine.
“We continue to observe very, very disturbing indicators of Russian escalation,” Blinken added, “particularly new military arriving along Ukraine’s borders.”
Blinken traveled to Fiji after attending a meeting with peers from Australia, India, and Japan in Melbourne, Australia. The four countries make up the “Quad,” a group of Indo-Pacific democracies formed to fight China’s regional hegemony.
