Solomon Islands PM Wants Permanent Police Arrangement With Beijing to Deal With ‘Internal Threats’

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspect honor guards during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 9, 2019. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images)

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said on July 1 that he wants to establish a permanent security arrangement with Beijing to deal with “internal threats.”

The prime minister made the comments after a five-month training arrangement wrapped up between the China Police Liaison Team, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, and the Correctional Services of Solomon Islands.

Speaking at a training demonstration, Sogavare said he looks forward to identifying gaps that were supposedly exploited by protestors in November 2021.

“Whilst we have MOUs [memorandums of understanding] in place, I think it is prudent that the Solomon Islands and the Peoples Republic of China start a discussion on how we can elevate the current joint training arrangement to a more permanent arrangement with clearly defined expected outcomes,” he said in comments obtained by The Island Sun newspaper.

Sogavare said he hopes the Police Force and Correctional Services can achieve the “capability” to deal with “internal threats.”

“Let me repeat it that as a sovereign country we cannot continue to depend on other countries to look after us,” he said. “We must have the capability to address our internal threats.

“We want our discipline agencies to be self-sustainable with integrity and professionalism. As a country, we will continue to explore how we can actively promote long-term enforcement cooperation with all our bilateral partners to bring peace and security for the people of Solomon Islands.”

Beijing Tightens Grip on Solomons, Pacific

Sogavare’s comments will be of concern to democratic leaders who have recently pressed the prime minister on a security deal with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The agreement would allow Chinese police, weapons, and even naval ships to be stationed in the region. From a wider perspective, Beijing has developed similarly tight relations—without military assistance—with 10 other Pacific nations.

The current police training came about after Australian and New Zealand security personnel were dispatched to the Solomon Islands to maintain peace after riots broke out over dissatisfaction with Sogavare. Weeks later, Beijing announced that it would send its own police force to help train the Solomon Islands’ security forces to better deal with protests.

South Pacific expert Cleo Paskal has previously said that the unpopular prime minister is attempting to solidify his rule before the next federal election.

This could be achieved by engineering a “false flag” event that would give Sogavare a reason to call on Chinese and Solomon Islands security forces to quell supposed “unrest” within the country—in turn, this would give the leader a reason to delay elections and undermine democracy.

Chinese expatriate Shawn Lin has said that Beijing uses its police force in line with its Belt and Road Initiative to spread its influence abroad.

“According to China’s Ministry of Finance, the CCP’s expenditures for ’maintaining stability'—domestic and abroad—have exceeded its defence spending for three consecutive years since 2011. After 2014, the data on its police force expenditure was no longer made public,” he wrote in The Epoch Times. “While suppressing its own people, the CCP is more than willing to export its communist repression abroad.”