The Solomon Islands have become another piece, a pawn perhaps, in the international geo-political chess game between the western "democracies" and the totalitarian east, ie. China and the Russian Federation.
Just as six months ago the average American would have failed to produce the question in TV quiz show Jeopardy if the clue would have been Kyiv, practically no Yankee realizes that Honiara is the capital of the Solomon Islands, wherever they are, which is way out in the middle of the South Pacific.
Residents of the Solomons traveladventures.org
In fact, Honiara, population 92,344, is located on the north shore of Guadalcanal Island. The site of intense fighting between the forces of Japan and the US during WWII, most of the violence there since has been domestic rioting. The city is 1912 miles from the Australian capital Canberra, 4,399 miles from Beijing, China and 8,388 miles from Washington, DC, USA. Nonetheless, it's now the focus of international scrutiny.
Word has gotten out that the Chinese are in the process of obtaining local permission to make use of the port facilities of Honiara. This has raised hackles in Australia, that considers the Solomons to be in their sphere of influence,
Of course, the US is attempting to be involved as well:
The US signalled its concern on Tuesday with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman speaking to Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele about plans for a US embassy there and “joint efforts to broaden and deepen engagement”. Kurt Campbell, the National Security Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, is expected to visit Honiara later this month.
The US had closed its Honiara embassy in 1993.
It might be interesting to compare the situation of the Solomon Islands with that of Ukraine. Western powers are unenthusiastic to accept a significant Chinese influence in a sovereign nation that is in reality a colonial outpost of Australia, just as the Russian Federation was opposed to NATO influences in what were Russian enclaves in Ukraine. It seems unlikely that the current great powers would be willing to trade blows over the Solomons, the least visited populated place on earth, but who knows?
In a recent speech US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said: "We cannot allow countries to use their market position in key raw materials, technology or products to have the power to disrupt our economy or exercise unwanted geopolitical leverage,"she said. Countries should try to arrange new trade agreements that reduce the influence of non-friendly partners in a move she called "friend shoring" to allied nations, she added.
In other words, sovereign nations that don't agree with US foreign policy objectives might be subjected to what amounts to international ostracism.
On the other hand, perhaps the Solomons might be capable of playing the would-be hegemons against one another to their own advantage, getting a better deal after auctioning off their love to the highest bidder.
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