Morrison defends management of Australia's relations with Solomons

Whoops, made a huge blunder…blaming on the boogie might work?

clap your hands ask the lord, it will be fine.

Looks like Morrison just made it worse

Do you STILL believe china is your FRIEND ?

The Solomon Islands have spoken. You don't want the Chinese there? Then tell the Yanks to get rid of their 7-800 military bases all over the world, especially around China.

There’s is a election in a few weeks. Hopefully, we won’t see anymore blunders by this foolish god botherer.

Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare told Parliament on Wednesday that opponents of his new security pact with China had threatened his country and insulted it.

“We are being treated as kindergarten students walking around with Colt .45s in our hands, and therefore we need to be supervised. We are insulted,” Sogavare said on Wednesday.

And yet Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Australia Robert Sisilo told ABC Radio last Monday 2 May 2022, that the new pact was a response to riots last November . . . that unemployment was a factor in the November riots . . . and Canberra could "further advance our relations" by providing more work visas and permanent residency permits" [3,000 visas currently] . . . and not just work in rural areas [currently] . . . but also "extended to the whole of Australia's metropolitan cities . . . where the demand for plumbers, bricklayers, caregivers, domestic servants . . . is huge," he said.

So, to recap, they are being treated like children. And being threatened. And insulted. BUT more islanders should be allowed in on work visas?

Sounds like politics to me.

[source for ABC interview: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/solomon-islands-to-supervise-chinese-police-operating-there-official]

The sooner he gets the boot the better….but sadly I don’t think too easy albanese will be any better! Duocracy is such a disappointment!

Has he done anything correctly in his three year term ?

"Mr Sogavare has entered into a secret arrangement with the Chinese government "

So that's a totally done-deal, and the Aussies only have themselves to blame for their ineptitude in being asleep to the aggressive expansionist policies of the extremely deceitful Chinese.

It's going to be near-enough impossible to walk this one back, because once they're settled in nicely there, in go the deep-water harbours for the surveillance-ships, the extended runways built into the ocean for the military aircraft, and then the Sinocisation of the Islanders just unrolls without let or hindrance - welcome to the neat new repressive Solomons society.....

Morrison is a vacuum, the Prime Minister you have when you don’t have the Prime Minister you want, but I haven’t seen anything reported here in Australia about threats to invade the Solomons. PM Sogavare is exaggerating for his own domestic audience. Australia has simply been outplayed by China, and Morrison, as is his habit, is saying whatever he has to to avoid taking responsibility for it.

I have to give it to the Solomon island PM, nice move, Robert Mugbee would be proud. He gets a permanent position and China gets a new pacific base. You want to complain… stick these sneakers.

Not your business.

Oh, please, go to Hawaii.

So, a few months ago they were screaming that sovereign nations are free to chose their alliances and what's best for their security, and now they say it's a "red line" if they do that.

It's apparent that nobody cares about any such principles when it comes to their own national security..

“That did not come as a surprise to our government

because we have been spying on our neighbors for years, which is definitely different from what China does”.

I wonder if we’ll be seeing a “special military operation” in the offing?

"Mr Sogavare has entered into a secret arrangement with the Chinese government "

So that's a totally done-deal, and the Aussies only have themselves to blame for their ineptitude in being asleep to the aggressive expansionist policies of the extremely deceitful Chinese.

I have to challenge that statement, and the whole of the article in fact. Nobody in the Australian government was asleep while the Chinese dealt with the Solomons. The situation has been in the press more or less continuously since the riots last year. In addition for the last decade there has been a steady drumbeat of articles describing how China is trying to undercut US and Australian influence among the island nations of the Pacific and even the French possession of Tahiti. Based on my daily reading of global news sources including those from the Asia Pacific region the governments of Australia, New Zealand and the US have been as involved as possible given the constraints of the Sogavare governments unwillingness to discuss their negotiations with China and now their refusal to make their agreement public. I do not see how you can blame Australia for being effed over by a deceitful foreign leadership. The Sogavare government isn't listening to his own people much less his regional neighbors, he has his own ambitions, but you blame that on the government of Australia, as if they could have made PM Sogavare do anything different. Australia provides the Solomon Islands with 65% of their total foreign aid, and that aid is in the form of grants rather than loans so there is no future burden on the Solomon Islands finances. Australia and New Zealand helped restore law and order a decade ago when there was an uprising there and came to their aid again after the most recent riots. Yet PM Sogavare stabs Australia and New Zealand in the back but you blame that on Australia and New Zealand. Your position seems uniformed by the history of Australian relations with the Solomon Islands.

In the grand scheme of things, the Solomon Islands are nothing but a transit station.

“We are very concerned for the Solomon Islands."

'Only' 2000km away?

When White people say they are "very concerned" about what nonWhite people are doing, history CLEARLY dictates that the nonWhite people should be 'very concerned'.

China is expanding from its "South China" Sea conquest. Australia and the US has been asleep. Bill Clinton pulled out the US embassy from the Solomans and is the major culprit. He invited China into the WTO too.