New Zealand to provide $8.2 million over two years
Venkat Raman in Suva, Fiji
July 13, 2022
Notwithstanding the five-year security arrangement that the Solomon Islands signed recently with China, the Oceania country will receive $8.5 million from New Zealand over the next two years for community policing, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced the funding today during a media brief at the Grand Pacific Hotel where the 51st Pacific Islands Forum Summit is being held.
Long-term commitment
Ms Mahuta said that funding is a part of the long-term commitment that New Zealand had made to the Solomon Islands to support its safety and security.
Ms Ardern has been in talks with Pacific Islands leaders over the past two days expressing concern over ‘agreements that go beyond trade and commerce.’
She said that she discussed the importance of the relationship between the two countries during her talks with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare today.
“We discussed within that the role that New Zealand Police have played for a long time around capability and capacity building and a community-based policing approach. We discussed our intentions to continue and extend that work. We also spoke about the security of the region in general,” Ms Ardern said.
Avoiding militarisation
Ms Ardern is worried that trade pacts and other agreements may ‘extend to defence and other areas that could become a threat to the region.
In April this year, China signed a five-year agreement with the Solomon Islands focusing on its national security, including cooperation on humanitarian assistance, disaster response, and efforts to maintain social order, among other areas. A clause in the agreement says that China can make ship visits to the Solomon Islands, carry out logistical replacement and have stopovers and transitions. The pact also provides for Chinese forces to protect the safety of Chinese personnel and major projects.
The agreement, the details of which have not been made public, has worried other countries of the South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand, apart from stoking the concerns of the United States of America and its allies.
Observers say that the primary driver behind the agreement is China’s long-term strategy of displacing the United States as the predominant power in the Western Pacific.
“It includes a clear ambition to break out of the maritime encirclement posed by the ‘first island chain,’ which is composed mostly of ‘offshore’ Asian US allies and partners, to gain a foothold somewhere in the scattered archipelagos beyond,” they say.
This also serves Beijing’s immediate objective of taking over Taiwan, by applying diplomatic and military pressure from within the ‘second island chain.’
Not a Military Zone
Ms Ardern said that during her talks, Mr Sogavare agreed with New Zealand’s view that the region should not become a military zone.
“His expression was that it was not in the interests of the Pacific family or the Solomon Islands that the region gets militarised. So, there is a common ground for us, and the Pacific Islands Forum members. When we have a common ground, we can build on it,” she said.
Ms Ardern said she wanted transparency, meaning that the details of the agreement between China and the Solomon Islands should be made public.
“We do not have that text publicly available. Mr Sogavare has previously said that publication of the details should be agreed upon by both parties- meaning China and his country. I have reiterated to him that should those needs arise in the future, we are ready to support.” She said.
Bilateral talks with Fiji
Ms Ardern also had bilateral talks with Fiji’s Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama who is Chairing the meetings of the PIF.
Ardern said she had the opportunity to sign the Suva agreement which attempts to resolve some of the differences between Micronesian PIF members that led to Kiribati, Nauru, the Cook Islands, and the Marshal Islands exit the Forum.
New Zealand is encouraging Fiji and other Pacific countries to consider its Seasonal Employer Scheme as the region recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The skills shortage that New Zealand has experienced is being experienced by the Pacific region. Fiji had seen a rapid increase in tourist numbers and is concerned about the loss of tourism skills to countries like New Zealand and Australia, which is why we need to work closely together,” she said.
Ms Ardern raised the issue with both Mr Bainimarama and Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, saying that the Scheme was designed to address unemployment and create opportunities for those who may not have employment within their country.
“Let us make sure that the schemes are still operating that way. We are all just moving back to normalcy and trying to get a sense of how to sustain our economies,” she said.
