BY MIKE TUA
THE United States (US) President Joe Biden’s National Security Council Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Dr. Kurt Campbell has on Tuesday dismissed the possibility of building a military base in the Solomon Islands after being asked by local journalists in Honiara.
Dr. Campbell who is also a former top Pentagon official and U.S. assistant secretary of state handling Asia-Pacific affairs during the Barack Obama era had expressed the US position on the repeated concerns about the idea of American military base installation in the country.
“We do not. We believe that the external military bases that would facilitate power projection are not in the best interest of the maintenance of peace and stability. And we’ve been consistent with that message. Ever since. Reports of this a chord emerged between the government of the Solomon Islands and China. And we stand by that, and we are not the only country. Almost all the partner countries that we work with, share similar concerns and views.
“I think the position of the United States and other countries in the region would be that while those interactions and engagements are appropriate, for instance, if there was any discussion about a permanent military base or something associated with power projection, the United States would have substantial concerns associated with that,” the White House National Security Council Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific said.
“It would be fair to say that the Solomon Islands Prime Minister has asked us to follow through on all the areas that we had committed to, and we underscored that we intended to do that and that we were quite concrete on steps that we were prepared to take and how we would follow up specifically.
“And I think we made the argument which we have before, that we support other countries working to better the lives of the Solomon Islands people, and that those decisions can and should be taken independently by the Solomon Islands government,” he added.
Monday’s arrival of the top US delegation led by Dr. Campbell in Honiara was the first-ever strategic dialogue between the two countries (US and Solomon Islands) under the administration of US President Joe Biden.
“On this visit, we had a chance to meet with the Solomon Islands Prime Minister and I was able to carry the best wishes of the President United States, we were able to exchange pleasantries, and seek assurances on several issues.
“I think we had a very positive meeting, then, we held the first-ever strategic dialogue between our two countries,” Dr. Campbell noted.
“We have very good conversations this morning as part of this strategic dialogue about areas where we could look to bring new development, finance tools, and other partnerships to bear to help the Solomon Islands develop new initiatives that will bring jobs to the Solomon Islands will help us address adaptation, resilience, for climate change, looking at sustainable agriculture, forestry, and other agricultural initiatives, so that we can bring a positive agenda in keeping with what people in the Solomon Islands want and need. And so we’re looking forward to continuing to have those conversations.
“As I tried to underscore I think the United States has long-standing historical, moral, and strategic interests here. What we’ve also tried to do is to be very direct, and acknowledge that we did not do enough before. And as a great nation, as a big country, I think we were big enough to admit that we need to do more, and we need to do better. And that’s what we’re trying to do,” Dr. Campbell added.
Dr. Campbell’s delegation, which is a whole-of-government delegation that includes U.S. Agency for International Development Assistant Administrator for Asia Michael Schiffer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Mark Lambert, U.S. Coast Guard Commander for Oceania Rear Admiral Michael Day left the country for Vanuatu yesterday afternoon.
