U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is on a tour of the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Australia and New Zealand aimed clearly at shoring up the U.S. Indo-Pacific front—such as it is—against China. The Solomon Islands are a specific target because of the security treaty that nation signed with China in April of this year. the U.S. charges the treaty represents a security threat, based on the unfounded claim that China may be planning to build a military base there.
Global Times today charges that Sherman’s visit is intended to sabotage China’s relations with the Pacific Island countries as part of Washington’s effort to contain China. Academics cited by Global Times report the U.S. is going so far as to pressure Pacific Island nations to cancel projects signed under the Belt and Road Initiative and hope to convince Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to abandon the security treaty with China.
In meetings with her colleagues from New Zealand and Australia, Sherman emphasized how they are collaborating to increase their cooperation through the ill-defined Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and are engaging the Pacific island nations more directly. She warned, according to Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), that the U.S. and Australia “are watching very carefully” to see how China’s security pact with the Solomon’s takes shape, emphasizing that if China were to build a military base there, this would be “a threat, potentially, to all the Pacific islands.”
With all the emphasis placed on the importance of the Solomon Islands, the State Department’s one paragraph readout on Sherman’s meeting with Prime Minister Sogavare and “select cabinet ministers,” listed a few topics discussed, including “developments affecting regional and global security"—undoubtedly referring to Taiwan and Ukraine. It is revealing that at a weekend memorial service commemorating the 80th anniversary of the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal, organized by the U.S. and attended by representatives from Australia and New Zealand, Sogavare, billed as one of the speakers, didn’t show up.
Using her own remarks to attack unnamed countries that don’t “respect the rules-based international order"—referring to China—Sherman then publicly chastised the Prime Minister, saying she “really felt sorry” for him, because he missed an opportunity to reflect “on how the Japanese were turned back” during World War II. She lectured him on how he will have to answer to his own citizens for such action, as the ceremony was an opportunity, she said, to “feel the solidarity of our work together for freedom and democracy in the Pacific.”
