Chinese naval base in Solomons a ‘red line’, says Australia

Bloomberg

Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a Chinese military base in the Solomon
Islands would be a “red line” for his government, while fellow US ally Japan became the latest to dispatch an envoy to the country over the issue.
Morrison is attempting to deflect criticism he did not move quickly enough to avoid a security agreement between Honiara and Beijing.
Speaking at a press conference in Darwin, Morrison said his determination to avoid a naval base in the Solomon Islands was shared not just by
the US but by the Pacific nation’s Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare.
Morrison said Sogavare had assured him personally there would be no military base in the Solomons.
“This is a shared concern, not just Australia. This is Australia
with regional governments,” he said.
A delegation led by President Joe Biden’s East Asia czar Kurt Campbell visited the country to have a “substantial discussion” with Sogavare about the pact.
The prime minister said in doing so, Washington had “revitalised relations” with the Solomon Islands and he welcomed, once again, a US decision to re-establish its embassy.
Australia’s opposition Labor Party described the pact as the “worst failure of Australian foreign policy in the Pacific since the end of World War II.”