Îles Salomon/Australie :
Il est bien
connu que le gouvernement des îles Salomon a conclu avec la Chine des accords
dans différent domaines. …
Imaginons
un instant que la Chine, avec l’accord du gouvernement des îles Salomon décide
de placer un ou deux unités de la flotte chinoise dans les eaux territoriales
des Salomon.
Et bien sûr
l’Australie, ce parangon de la « Démocratie » se sent déjà menacé. On a de ce
fait un exemple flagrant de la double morale et de l’arrogance « Occidentale ».
Etrange
n’est-ce pas ? La Russie se sent menacé par les activités Otaniennes en
Ukraine, et elle a par ailleurs toutes les raisons de de le faire, passe à
l’action (Guerre contre les Atlantistes, Américanistes et Globalistes), et cela
devrait être un crime.
Je crains
que le gouvernement des Îles Salomon ne soit vraiment en danger, pas de la part
des Chinois, mais bien des « Démocratures » Occidentales (USA en tête). Un coup
d’état ou une révolution de « couleur » peut-être même une Action militaire,
organiser par les occidentaux est plus que probable.
Donc, non
seulement double morale mais belle et bien la preuve que les grandes paroles du
genre « UN pays peut décider librement avec quels autres pays il veut
conclure des accords » sont des « règles » à géométrie variable.
Mais nous sommes le camp du BIEN 😁😁😁
Beijing-Solomons Deal: A Threat to Australian Sovereignty
Gabriël Moens
Commentary
On March
24, a leaked draft agreement between the Solomon Islands and the People’s
Republic of China on security cooperation sent shockwaves through the
Australian political and security establishments.
Article 1
of the Agreement stipulates that “China may, according to its own needs and
with the consent of the Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out
logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in the Solomon
Islands, and the relevant forces of China can be used to protect the safety of Chinese
personnel and major projects in the Solomon Islands.”
The
disclosure of the existence of a secret security agreement between the two
nations has spawned a variety of comments, which are either provocative or
conciliatory. For example, David Llewellyn-Smith, former owner of The Diplomat,
a prominent Asia Pacific foreign affairs journal, has argued that the proposed
security agreement presents Australia with its own “Cuban missile crisis.”
Specifically,
he contends that the establishment of a Chinese base in the Solomon Islands
would be “the effective end of our sovereignty and democracy” and that
Australia has no choice but to “invade and capture Guadalcanal such that we
engineer regime change in Honiara.”
In
contrast, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, in a
statement released on March 25, strikes a more conciliatory note when she
commented that the Australian government has “regularly and respectfully raised
our concerns with the Solomon Islands Government and will continue to do so”
and that Australia “would be particularly concerned by any actions that
undermine the stability and security of our region, including the establishment
of a permanent presence such as a military base.”
Although
both viewpoints confirm the strategic importance of the Solomon Islands to
Australia, it is difficult to reconcile them. Hence, it is appropriate to
consider whether the agreement between the Solomon Islands and China threatens
Australia’s sovereignty; by considering the background of this matter and its
context, it might be possible to secure a better understanding of this issue.
When the
present Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, came to power
on April 24, 2019, he severed the Islands’ diplomatic ties with Taiwan in
September 2019 (followed by Kiribati four days later). The Solomon Islands then
recognised China as its legitimate diplomatic partner.
In 2020,
China sent 14 grievances to Australia that, according to Beijing, poison the
bilateral relationship between the two countries. The list of grievances
includes Australia’s banning of Huawei from its 5G network and its insistence
to convene an international commission to consider the origins of the COVID-19
virus.
Beijing
also complained about the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018
(FITS), which was meant to expose dangerous foreign influences well-known to
our security agencies.
In 2018, the then federal Attorney-General Christian Porter
stated that this new Act would “safeguard the nation’s democracy.”
“FITS will provide visibility of the forms and sources of
foreign influence in Australia’s governmental and political processes,” he
said. This law was therefore
supposed to protect Australia from foreign undemocratic regimes, such as China,
attempting to influence Australian citizens.
In getting a foothold in the Pacific, China would make it
easier to isolate Taiwan. Thus, the draft agreement, if it were to result in
the establishment of a military base, could significantly serve the
geopolitical interests of Beijing.
The agreement would also effectively weaponise the list of
14 grievances because, in a military conflict, China would be able to strike
Australia, especially if a military base on the Solomon Islands were to have
cruise missile boats and hypersonic missiles that could reach Brisbane in less
than 15 minutes.
Of course, the Solomon Islands is an independent nation,
and, as such, it enjoys the benefits of sovereignty and the concomitant right
to make its own decisions.
In fact, the Solomon Islands also has a current operational
security agreement with Australia, signed in August 2017. The agreement enables Australia “to deploy
rapidly and effectively in an operational capacity in the event of a major
security challenge or event, including humanitarian response situations.”
The comment
in the agreement that the Pacific Region is “of great importance to Australia”
and that the “stability of Solomon Islands has a major impact on the security
of Australia and the broader region” underscores the importance of the Islands’
security to Australia.
Australia
has always assumed the role of the police officer in the Solomons Islands, most
recently in November 2020, when protestors tried to storm the parliament and
set fire to Honiara’s Chinatown in a three-day rampage.
The riots
were, at least partially, a response to the decision of the Sogavare government
to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan and to switch its allegiance to
Beijing.
Australia deployed 200 peacekeepers to restore order, which
helped the prime minister of the Islands to retain power. At present, there is
still 50 Australian personnel serving in the Islands until the end of 2023.
Following international criticism of the agreement with
China, the Solomon Islands described its foreign policy strategy as “friends to
all, enemies to none.”
Additionally, the Solomon Islands, on March 25, sought to
justify the proposed agreement with China as necessary to improve the quality
of the 800,000 people who live on the islands “and address soft and hard
security threats facing the country.”
Even if this justification is plausible, the agreement
dealing with police cooperation with Beijing can be characterised as an example
of opportunism, or dollar diplomacy, which fails to consider the interests of
the whole Pacific region, especially Australia.
The suggestion of Llewellyn-Smith to secure Guadalcanal and
to seek regime change in Honiara is reminiscent of the invasion by the United
States, under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, of the island of Grenada on Oct.
25, 1983, to restore order caused by internal divisions in the ruling communist
party.
The Grenada
invasion, coined “Operation Urgent Fury,” was a successful intervention that
could be used as a boilerplate in case Australia decides to act upon
Llewellyn-Smith’s recommendation.
The
language of Article 1 of the proposed Solomon Islands-China security agreement
is suitably vague. However, if it were interpreted as allowing China to
establish a military base in the Solomon Islands, which is only 1,700
kilometres (1050 miles) from the coast of Queensland, Australia might well
decide to act to protect its Asia-Pacific interests.
Views
expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Gabriël Moens
Gabriël A. Moens AM is an emeritus professor of law at the
University of Queensland, and served as pro vice-chancellor and dean at Murdoch
University. In 2003, Moens was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal by the
prime minister for services to education. He has taught extensively across
Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Moens has recently published two novels “A
Twisted Choice” (Boolarong Press, 2020) and “The Coincidence” (Connor Court
Publishing, 2021).