US misses opportunity to counter China in Solomon Islands

The United States, hoping to counter Chinese ambitions in the South-West and South Pacific as an overall part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, has failed to recognize the strategic importance of the Solomon Islands.

The United States, hoping to counter Chinese ambitions in the South-West and South Pacific as an overall part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, has failed to recognize the strategic importance of the Solomon Islands. According to the Asia Times, the US has failed to effectively respond to mass protestations against the Solomon Islands Prime Minister who has allowed China's corruption in the Pacific Island.

It is noted that the Solomon Islands form an important strategic group of islands in the Pacific and the US understood the strategic importance of the Solomon Islands during the course of the World War II campaign when US Marines fought a long amphibious campaign against the Imperial Japanese forces. The Solomon Islands form an important strategic arc in the contest between the PRC and the US and its allies in the wider Indo-Pacific.

Solomon Islands hold the key to the important Sea Lanes of Communication connecting the US, Australia, and the rest of Asia. Chinese influence in the Solomon Islands can disconnect the US from the rest of the Southwest and the South Pacific. On the other hand, Solomon Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare switched the country's formal diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the PRC which made incentives for Chinese plans to build a military base in the Solomons.

The entire island of Tulagi in Solomon was meant to be used for dual purposes and was leased for a was indeed under contract to a Chinese company until the Solomon Islands government cancelled the deal after it was exposed and provoked public protests. The report mentions that the US has failed to counter China in the Pacific Island nations because of its thin diplomatic presence. (ANI)

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