Skip to main content

Sogavare is playing Australia for sucker - an opinion

 

ASPI—The Strategist: There’s a moment to realise that you’re being played for a sucker. That moment has come for the Australian government in the case of the current Solomons Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare.

Since the new Australian government came to power after the 21 May elections, it has engaged rapidly and deeply with Pacific island leaders and with Sogavare himself and acted in ways that address their deeply held concerns, notably on the existential challenge of climate change. Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s trip to the Pacific straight off the plane from the Tokyo Quad meeting, followed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s participation in the Pacific Islands Forum meeting and the visit to Honiara by the minister for international relations and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, were welcome evidence of priority and attention to the region and its leaders.

Read more

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sogavare is a dangerous paranoid prime minister

The Australian government has donated police vehicles and deadly weapons to the Solomon Islands' government per the request of the prime minister of the less developed country in the region. The ridiculous thing he said in justifying these deadly weapons is that they are crucial to the prosperity of the country, which is absolutely ridiculous. Besides that, he also accepted donation from China of motorbikes and riot vehicles. Are these weapons necessary or are these so-called powers merely feeding into the paranoia of this mentally unstable prime minister?  Prime Minister Sogavare had been in government since the 90s and was elected in 1997 until now as MP for East Choisel. And he should remember that in the 1980s and 1990s, prosperity defined the country, and though various governments succeeded, and the economy fluctuated, it was largely considered stable until the late 1990s when the SI government decided to buy weapons to protect itself from the threats posed by the PNG Defense...

Sogavare lied to the world

 SOGAVARE LIED AT THE UNGA The Prime Minister of SI spoke at the United Nations General Assembly, attacking two important key issues he believes that are hurting his government and SI.  First, he went after what he called an effort on 'Social Media' to spread disinformation about his 'China – SI' security pact, which he signed earlier this year. In it, Sogavare claimed that most of the things said about him and his new friends, the Chinese Communist Party, were done deliberately to mislead his country and the world. As a result of that, he said the misleading information led to riots and looting, as we'd seen at the end of 2021.  Secondly, Sogavare attacked – indirectly – Australia and its allies such as the US and Britain. Choosing a foreign partner is the right of a sovereign, independent state. He argued that his government's partnership with the Chinese government is solely for the interest of the country, and decried any perception that SI was becoming an a...

China hits back at Australia over claims Beijing is spreading false narratives in SI

  On Saturday China  slammed a recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which claimed that China is attempting to "spread false narratives and suppress information on a range of topics" in the Solomon Islands. Chinese authorities said such move is an ineffective attempt to stir trouble. There is no doubt that the Chinese Communist Party is all over Solomon Islands influencing its decision making, and its domestic policies. This is a violation of all diplomatic decorum where domestic issues are left to the governing bodies, not foreign entities. In the months after booting China out of the country, China wanted to ensure no one in the country had any connection to Taiwan. No only did the government of Sogavare pushed hard against any provinces that still remained loyal to Taiwan, it was doing so at the best of Beijing. Sogavare had attacked the Malaita Province, and attempted to unseat the pro-Taiwanese premier Suidani. The Suidani government was shaken and ...