Sawt Falasteen - Solomon Islands voices 'concern' over Pacific police deal

"There is one thing that is not so much nagging us, but it's of concern," Foreign Minister Peter Agovaka told AFP on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga.

"The only thing that we do not agree to, is that it imposes conditions on our own domestic security.

"I don't think another sovereign state should put conditions on another sovereign state."

US ally Australia this week convinced its Pacific neighbours to back an initiative giving it a greater role in training the region's scattered and stretched police forces.

Hailed as a "godsend" by nations such as Fiji, others closer to Beijing appeared far more reluctant to get on board.

Agovaka said offers of policing help from Australia had come with strings attached.

"Conditions like not allowing our police officers who are trained under Australia to be again trained under the Chinese police."

A leaked snippet of the summit's final declaration indicated leaders supported the plan in principle, but were free to decide their level of involvement.

- Power play -

Leaders on Wednesday unveiled the plan to create up to four regional police training centres and a multinational crisis reaction force, backed by $271 million in initial funding from Australia.

Under the plan, a corps of about 200 officers drawn from different Pacific Island nations could be dispatched to regional hot spots and disaster zones when needed and invited.

Canberra and Washington were caught napping in 2022 when Beijing signed a secretive security pact with Solomon Islands -- the details of which still largely remain under wraps.

China now maintains a small but conspicuous police presence in Solomon Islands, sending a revolving cadre of officers to train locals in shooting and riot tactics.

Agovaka also questioned Taiwan's observer status within the region's top political bloc and voiced unease about the participation of US territories Guam and American Samoa.

He said members should be "sovereign states", not "states that are governed by another jurisdiction".

"American Samoa and Guam are territories of the United States. So sometimes we are uncertain if they are speaking for Guam, for American Samoa, or for the United States."

China claims self-ruled Taiwan -- which has its own government, military and currency -- as part of its territory.

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST