Why Australia and the US care so much about China’s security pact with a tiny Pacific island

As China put it, it was a mutually beneficial agreement aimed at creating peace and stability in the Solomon Islands, a tiny country with a population less than half the size of Manhattan that was rocked by violent protests last year.But other countries saw it differently.To Australia, New Zealand and the United States, it was Beijing’s latest power play in an ongoing struggle for influence in the Pacific — a move that some claim threatens the very stability of the region. Speculation had mounted over what would be in the agreement after an unverified leaked draft of the deal appeared online last month. Some were concerned the agreement could see Canberra’s worst fear realized: a Chinese military base being built in the Solomon Islands, a first for China in the Pacific. Australia and the US were so worried that they sent delegations to the Pacific island, hoping to stop the agreement. But China announced the deal had been signed on Tuesday, before the US delegation even had a chance to touch down. Though details of the final agreement haven’t been released, some onlookers say the agreement makes Australia less safe and threatens to further destabilize the Solomon Islands, where there’s already been Mihai Sora, an expert in Australian foreign policy in the Pacific at Australian think tank the Lowy Institute, pointed to Djibouti as a country that signed a security agreement that evolved into a naval base that Beijing refers to as a logistics facility. The prospect of a Chinese base in the Pacific is unsettling for the US, which also has military bases in the region that are becoming more strategically important as China expands its military presence in the South China Sea. It’s also unsettling for Australia, which potentially faces the prospect of Chinese ships docking not far from home — the Solomons is around 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from Australia’s northeastern coast.”It’s probably true that it would mean Australia is less secure as a result of this agreement,” Kabutaulaka said.But, says White, a Chinese military base in the tiny nation only becomes a real issue for Australia during any potential conflict with China. The significance of any base hinges on how well Australia manages its relationship with China — a relationship that’s become increasingly Those challenges include economic inequality between islanders, with some taking their anger out on Chinese businesses they see as a symbol of closer ties with the mainland. But the agreement also sends a much bigger message: that Australia and its allies’ approaches in the region isn’t working.Australia has long talked up the idea of the “Pacific family.” But according to White, Australia pays little attention to the Pacific unless there’s questions about security. And more than that, Australia and its allies are still stuck in the past, imagining that China’s power can be minimized and those countries can remain the dominant powers in the region, he said.”More and more over the last few years, Australia has found itself moving to a position where our approach to managing the rise of China is to try and stop it happening,” he said. “That’s not going to work. Australia has to learn to live with Chinese power — and that includes Chinese expanded influence in the southwest Pacific.””It just poses a challenge to us to lift our game to maintain our influence there — and that’s something we should be doing anyway.”