Defence Minister Peter Dutton has insisted Australia needs a "robust friendship" with the Solomon Islands regardless of experiences its Prime Minister will invite Chinese language forces there.
Mr Dutton was talking on Right now this morning after The Australian newspaper reported Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare is more likely to set up a "strongarm" drive.
"(Prime Minister) Manasseh has mentioned he won't permit a navy base when it comes to the Solomon Islands, we take him at his phrase," Mr Dutton mentioned.
"We have Australian Federal Police and troops there for the time being ... We have been a trusted accomplice for an extended interval of a while."
The Solomon Islands final month signed a safety take care of China that might see Beijing arrange a navy base there.
Mr Dutton mentioned rising Chinese language assertiveness within the Pacific was not only a problem for Australia however for different nations equivalent to Japan and India.
"The Chinese language function by a really completely different presence of a safety drive inside Africa and elsewhere," Mr Dutton mentioned.
On Wednesday, Mr Sogavare launched a broadside in opposition to international locations important of its new take care of China, claiming the Pacific nation had been "threatened with invasion".
In a full-throated defence of the pact, which many consultants concern permits China to determine a navy presence lower than 2000km from the Queensland coast, he hit out on the "obtrusive hypocrisy" of "a few of our companions working with their brokers on the bottom"
"We're threatened with invasion, Mr Speaker, and that is severe," Mr Sogavare advised Parliament.
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