China-Solomon Islands pact: Japan joins US, Australia in boosting Pacific islands engagement amid concerns

The signing of the security pact between China and the Solomon Islands last month has raised concerns about the region's security, especially in the United States, Australia and the Pacific Islands, but Japan too is keeping close tabs on recent developments.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will begin a three-day trip to Fiji and Palau beginning Friday, while parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs Uesugi Kentaro visited the Solomon Islands last week.

The visits come in the wake of disclosures by both the Chinese and Solomons governments that both countries had signed a deal that will reportedly allow Beijing to deploy forces and naval assets to the islands.

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No final deal has been released but a draft version leaked in March included a provision for Chinese warships to be given safe harbour in the Solomon Islands, just 2,000km from the Australian coastline.

To assuage international concerns, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Mannaseh Sogavare told a visiting Japanese delegation last Tuesday that he had no intention of allowing China to build military bases in his country,

Concerned that the deal would significantly extend China's military reach in the region, analysts said that Japan, which has had interests in the territory for decades, should expand its presence into the Pacific Island nations.

Tokyo should also increase aid, investment and undertake capacity building efforts in the region, as well as work with allies to ensure it does not fall further under Chinese influence, experts added.

Ben Ascione, an assistant professor of international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University said that, like the US and Australia, Japan is concerned that the security deal could be a stepping stone toward a Chinese military base in the Solomon Islands.

"There is concern about the sort of tactics Chinese police might use if called upon to maintain order and quell protests," Ascione said, adding that the use of Chinese law enforcement could further intensify divisions in the country, specifically between the Honiara and Malaita provinces.

Malaita has a history of disputes with Guadalcanal province, where the national government is based, and opposed the 2019 switch of diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing.

Satoru Nagao, a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said that if the Chinese navy set up a base in the South Pacific, it will be more difficult to track Chinese naval ships in the Pacific.

"China can deploy naval ships anytime near Hawaii or other regions between the US and Australia easily and attack Alaska and US Western coasts," Nagao said.

Japan's interest in the South Pacific before World War II stemmed from the access to energy, food and resources, noted Kazuto Suzuki, a professor of international political economy at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Public Policy.

Over the years, South Pacific countries had also supported Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council while in recent years, the region has emerged as part of Japan's Free and Open Indo Pacific (FOIP) aimed at maintaining a rules-based order in the Asia-Pacific region.

Since 1997, Japan has initiated and hosted the triennial Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM) which aims to stabilise and support the development of countries in the South Pacific, and to strengthen democratic institutions and rule of law in this region, noted Suzuki.

"These [measures] are of course to prevent China from being over-influential in this region", Suzuki said.

Since the switching of diplomatic recognition, Beijing has started building a sports stadium, begun repairing the country's gold mine, and taken over Taipei's financing of development funds for local parliamentarians. Last year, China also pledged to donate US$11.3 million in rural development funds to the Solomon Islands.

Given the geopolitical importance of the region, Suzuki said that Tokyo ought to increase the amount of financial support and investment there.

"Japan was one of the major contributors to Tonga after the undersea volcano erupted," Suzuki noted, referring to the relief supplies and emergency grant aid provided after a volcanic eruption and tsunami hit the area earlier this year.

Japan can also invest and build infrastructure to help Pacific countries deal with the effects of climate change, as well as strengthen the Solomon Islands' coastguard by training and exporting vessels, Suzuki added.

Extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Pacific Islands nations face challenges such as intense cyclones and droughts, loss of coastal infrastructure, land, coral reefs and mangroves, and failures of subsistence crops.

"Countries in the South Pacific face similar problems with Solomon Islands, what is needed is to strengthen ties with neighbouring nations such as Vanuatu or Fiji," Suzuki added.

Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, a research fellow at the Manila-based Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, said that Japan can "mitigate exposure" of Pacific Islands' states to China by offering climate change solutions such as renewable energy projects and engineering works including the building of dykes and sea walls.

"[This] will go a long way in effectively competing with China," Pitlo said, adding that helping Pacific countries to harness, conserve and protect their marine resources will also have an immediate and lasting positive impact in Tokyo's relations with countries in the region.

Japan can also modernise the region's fisheries sector by tapping into its technologies and practices honed at home, Pitlo said, while offering greater market access for Pacific fisheries exports as well as investing in fish processing facilities.

"[Japan] can also step up investment in port construction and operation, shipping and marine eco-tourism," Pitlo said, adding that donating recently decommissioned ships and offering concessional loans to procure new ones are other measures that Tokyo can undertake.

Noting that Japan has long engaged with the Solomons including through the provision of official development help (ODA), Ascione from Waseda University pointed out that Tokyo replaced the ODA Charter with the Development Cooperation Charter in 2015.

This allows for "non-military" support to foreign militaries and coastguards from the ODA budget, he said, remarking that Japan could either direct more or restructure its existing ODA to the Solomon Islands toward key issues of concern for the country such as police training and countering illegal fishing.

Nagao from the Hudson Institute said the South Pacific region is also an area that all Quad members - US, Japan, Australia and India - can work together on, adding that, despite New Delhi's distance from the region, the South Asian nation held a summit with South Pacific countries in 2014.

That year, India formed the Forum for India-Pacific Islands cooperation to strengthen relations with the 14 Pacific Islands nations which include the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Last July, Japan partnered with Unicef in supporting Pacific Island governments with Covid-19 preparedness and response efforts, including the promotion of water sanitation and hygiene in healthcare facilities and the distribution of supplies such as non-medical personal protective equipment.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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