Australia pushes Pacific police force to check China’s regional ambitions

The policing initiative comes amid concerns over China’s expanding police presence in Pacific island nations, particularly Solomon Islands

Pacific nations

Agence France-Presse

Published: 9:17am, 28 Aug 2024

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Pacific island leaders endorsed a landmark regional policing plan on Wednesday at a summit in Tonga, a contentious move seen as trying to limit China’s security role in the region.

Leaders unveiled a plan to create up to four regional police training centres and a multinational crisis reaction force, backed by US$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 hotspots and disaster zones when needed and invited.

“This demonstrates how Pacific leaders are working together to shape the future that we want to see,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, hailing the agreement.

The Australian leader made the announcement while flanked by leaders of Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga – a symbolic show of unity in a region riven by competition between China and the United States.

Papua New Guinea police on parade in Port Moresby before 2018’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the city. Photo: AFP

Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni, the summit host, said the initiative would plug regional security gaps and tackle emerging threats like organised crime.

“Tonga, like many other countries, are facing a number of transnational security challenges, including seeing an increase in drug trafficking within the Pacific in recent years” he said.

According to Mihai Sora of the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, Wednesday’s announcement was a diplomatic victory for Australia and for the Pacific Islands Forum, a regional bloc which had appeared deeply divided on the topic.

China’s Pacific allies – most notably Vanuatu and Solomon Islands – had voiced concern that the policing plan represented a “geostrategic denial security doctrine”, designed to box out Beijing.

While all members of the forum have endorsed the deal in principle, national leaders will have to decide how much they participate, if at all.

Tonga’s Sovaleni said Pacific nations will “have the discretion to choose how they would contribute to and benefit”.

A Chinese liaison officer trains Solomon Islands police in unarmed combat skills in 2022. Photo: Royal Solomon Islands Police Force/Handout via AFP

Australia and New Zealand have historically been the region’s go-to security partners, leading peacekeeping missions in Solomon Islands and training in Nauru, Fiji and PNG.

Policing, however, has increasingly become a cornerstone of Beijing’s efforts to build Pacific influence.

China tried and failed to sign a region-wide security pact in 2022, but has since been plying some under-resourced Pacific police forces with martial arts training and fleets of Chinese-made vehicles.

Australia and long-time ally the US were caught napping in 2022 when China secretly signed a security pact with Solomon Islands – the details of which have not been made public.

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

Gleaming new police vehicles roam the capital Honiara emblazoned with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force badge and stark red “China Aid” stickers.

Earlier this year, Beijing also started sending teams of police advisers to Kiribati.

There are fears in Washington that China may one day parlay these agreements into a permanent military foothold in the region.

02:17

China confirms signing of Solomon Islands security pact, as US warns of regional instability

According to the Lowy Institute’s Sora, Canberra will hope it helps “close the window for China to seek a regional security agreement”.

PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said on Wednesday that his country was keen to “work together with Australia” to implement the proposal.

But others signalled lingering misgivings.

Top Solomon Islands’ diplomatic official Colin Beck said that Honiara would have domestic discussions about the plan before anything is finalised.

“We have a national process that we have to dive into it,” said Beck, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“We are basically reviewing our national security strategy and everything, so it will be part of the conversation,” he said.

“The matter is still going on. The forum is not yet done.”