Reuters Item, 22 March 2023
The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday.
The United States and its allies, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, have held concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year.
ALSO SEE ………. https://www.voanews.com/a/solomons-pm-tells-australia-no-chinese-military-presence-/6779891.html
Cf … & NOTE
A Momentous Issue: The Hambantota Port Project under Scrutiny in Thuppahi
EMAIL COMMENT from A Dinkum Aussie, 23 March 2023:
“This will irritate Australia. In spite of assurances given that the constructed ports will not have dual purpose, ANU’s Peter Connolly thinks otherwise, suggesting China could adapt it at anytime for its Navy without a shred of evidence. Watch the Americans and Australians try to sabotage this project.
The same claims were made about Hambantota and one US think tank even lists the Sri Lankan port as a Chinese Naval base.
Very interesting,
thanks for sharing.