The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will move quickly to establish a “military footprint” in the Solomon Islands after concluding a contentious security deal that opens the door for Beijing to station troops and weapons in the country, according to a defence expert.
Australian and U.S. leaders were caught wrong-footed by the emergence of the secret deal in late March, sparking a flurry of diplomatic activity to compel Solomon Islands’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to change his mind.
Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, warned that the CCP would “lose no time in moving quickly” to capitalise on the recently finalised “Security Cooperation between Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).”
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