Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare declined a request this week to meet members of a high-profile US congressional delegation who are focused on competition with China.
The visit to Solomon Islands by representatives from the US select committee on the Chinese Communist party comes amid a growing struggle for influence between the US and China in the Pacific region. Last year, Solomon Islands signed a controversial security pact with the Chinese government and in July, the prime minister agreed a new deal on police cooperation while on a trip to Beijing.
“We requested the prime minister’s office for talks but they told us the government is busy this week … It’s a missed opportunity,” US congressman Neal Dunn, who led the delegation, said on Tuesday.
The Solomon Islands government did not immediately respond to questions about why it declined to meet the US lawmakers.
Solomon Island opposition leader Mathew Waley described the failure of the government to meet the US delegation as “a real shame”.
“The prime minister and his office treats the US with contempt. So much for ‘friends to all’. It seems more like ‘friends to some’,” Waley said.
During their visit, the US delegation met civil society groups and held talks with opposition groups, including Waley.
Dunn, whose father served in the Pacific region in the second world war, and Amata Radewagen, a House representative from American Samoa, also visited the war memorial sites and the National Referral hospital.
“Solomon Islands were strategically important in world war two, for the generations since, and certainly still today,” Dunn said, adding “we must remain strongly committed to the Pacific region and keep working with Solomon Islands to preserve peace and security.”
In a statement issued by the committee, Dunn also expressed concern about Solomon Islands’ increasingly close ties with China.
“Like a viper slithering around its prey, the CCP [Chinese Communist party] is coiling around Solomon Islands in hopes of tightening their grip on the Indo-Pacific region,” Dunn said.
The visit to Solomon Islands came as the US announced new aid programs in other parts of the Pacific. This week Samantha Power, administrator for the United States Agency International Development (USAID), opened a new mission in Suva, Fiji to support nine other Pacific islands countries
The new funding includes measure to help in the fight against the climate crisis, as well as programs to manage local health issues.
On Tuesday, Fijian prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka said the aid would help the region , adding that the US “understands” what the country wants.
“What is important for me is their interest in the restoration of democratic processes in Fiji when it comes to the media, municipal elections and those kind of things. We are glad that they understand what we want.
“When we say we need something, they will say yes,” he told the Guardian.
Power met Papua New Guinea president James Marape earlier this week to open USAID’s Port Moresby office that will serve Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
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