Strategic Geography
🇸🇧Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is at once a signatory of a security agreement with China and a chair of the Pacific Islands Forum — two roles that make it the clearest case of how a small state preserves room for its own judgement between great powers. This section follows its diplomatic choices and their interaction with regional institutions.
2 analyses
The Statement That Never Came: A Chinese Missile Test Exposes the Deeper Contest in Pacific Diplomacy
After a Chinese submarine test-launched a strategic missile into the Pacific, the Forum's foreign ministers could not agree on a statement. A failure to agree on wording repays more study than a strongly worded communiqué: the same consensus rule that let small states constrain nuclear powers in 1985, and blocked Beijing's regional security package in 2022, has now stopped the Forum's own document. The institution has not changed — the structure of interests has.
Missile Diplomacy in the South Pacific: Security and Economic Calculus Behind the Solomon Islands' Protest
Following China's submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test in the South Pacific, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale issued a rare public protest. Historically viewed as one of Beijing's closest Pacific allies, Honiara's outspoken criticism signals a profound shift, as island nations increasingly prioritize regional security and sovereignty over immediate economic incentives.