In the Solomon Islands, election eve involves widespread vote-buying with bribes like cash, rice, and solar panels, despite tightened electoral laws. The upcoming election is pivotal in the competition for influence in the region between China, the US, and their ally Australia. The vote may serve as a referendum on the incumbent leader's balancing act between Beijing and Canberra. The Solomon Islands' pivot towards China in recent years has raised concerns among its neighbours, particularly Australia. The country, economically challenged due to historical conflicts, faces significant geopolitical scrutiny due to its strategic location in the Pacific.
Solomon Islands, where China has gained significant influence, is preparing for an election that could impact the region's future. Current Prime Minister Sogavare, who switched allegiances from Taiwan to Beijing, is seeking a second consecutive term, sparking concerns about China's naval presence in the South Pacific.
General elections will be held in the Solomon Islands on 17 April 2024 to determine the composition of the 12th Parliament. Initially planned for 2023, parliament voted in 2022 to delay the elections. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare claimed the country could not afford to have an election in the same year the Solomon Islands was hosting the Pacific Games. The opposition condemned the delay and accused Sogavare of a power grab.Sogavare assumed a fourth non-consecutive term as prime minister in 2019, after four parties, including his Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party (OUR), formed the Democratic Coalition Government for Advancement (DCGA). Months later, in November 2019, the DCGA government severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established relations with China, a move condemned by the opposition. The switch was a factor in the cause of demonstrations in Honiara in November 2021, which were initially peaceful but later turned violent after Sogavare did not meet with protesters. Much of the capital sustained damage, while the government called in personnel from four countries, including Australia, to help restore order. Sogavare dismissed calls from the opposition to resign, and shortly after the unrest, he survived a no-confidence motion. In 2022, the government signed a security pact with China, allowing it to request the deployment of Chinese military personnel in the Solomon Islands during unrest. While Sogavare said the pact would help provide the Solomon Islands with further stability and economic growth, the opposition claimed it threatened the country's sovereignty. Other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and the United States, expressed concerns with the agreement.
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in the Melanesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean.This page is about the history of the nation state rather than the broader geographical area of the Solomon Islands archipelago, which covers both Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island, a province of Papua New Guinea. For the history of the archipelago not covered here refer to the former administration of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, the North Solomon Islands and the History of Bougainville.
Events in the year 2024 in the Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands elects a national legislature, known as the National Parliament of Solomon Islands, which has 50 members, elected for a four-year term in single-seat constituencies.
The National Parliament of Solomon Islands has 50 members, elected for a four-year term in 50 single-seat constituencies.It is presided by a Speaker, currently Patterson Oti. Parliament is currently dissolved.
Following a successful visit to China late last year by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Australia-China relations are on an upward trend, having turned frosty under the previous administration. With Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi set to visit Australia later this month, hopes are high that progress can be made in resolving trade disputes between the two sides. But was the recent Australia-ASEAN Special Summit a sign that Australia is looking elsewhere for partners? Or could deeper Australian engagement with Southeast Asia complement the repair of its China relationship? The deterioration of the Australia-China relationship under the previous Australian government is commonly attributed to some provocative statements by the leaders in Canberra, and the language has certainly moderated since the Albanese government took office. Instead of the "China threat "assertions that were a hallmark of former prime minister Scott Morrison's government, the Albanese government has been more cordial in talking about China and has been investing in repairing Australia's relationship with it. At the same time, it has also been investing more in a diversity of regional relationships, from the Pacific islands to Southeast Asia.
The Pacific island nation of Nauru has announced that it is severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognizing China as the People's Republic of China, making it one of the few nations to do so. Nauru will no longer develop any official relations or exchanges with Taiwan. The decision comes just days after Taiwan's presidential elections, and Taiwan called the move 'China's retaliation against our democratic elections.' Only 12 countries now officially recognize Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi wrapped up a highly successful tour of New Zealand and Australia on Thursday with a private meeting in Sydney alongside former Labor prime minister Paul Keating after a tight schedule. Although there were no major announcements, analysts say the visit was a further sign of the stabilization of the Australia-China relationship under the Labor government headed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, said Wang's trip was significant in that it was the first in seven years. "When it came to the Australia-China relationship specifically, listening to him talk was almost a carbon copy of what our Foreign Minister (Penny Wong) has been saying," Laurenceson told China Daily. After the seventh China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue in Canberra on Wednesday, Wang said the mutual trust between the two countries will increase and China-Australia relations will move forward, according to a statement released by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China has won a nearly three-year dispute with Australia at the World Trade Organization regarding tariffs on steel products that were imposed during a period of strained bilateral relations. The WTO found that Australia's investigating authority acted inconsistently with anti-dumping agreement articles. Australia's Trade Minister accepted the ruling and stated the country's commitment to a rules-based trading system. Trade tariffs have been a significant issue between Beijing and Canberra, with most tariffs lifted but some on specific products still remaining.
President of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi revisited his childhood links with China during an exclusive interview with China Daily on Sunday in Beijing. "When I was a little kid of three or four, my mother used to work in a Chinese supermarket," Santokhi said, adding that today he is familiar with Chinese traditions, culture and cuisine because of it. He said his childhood interactions with the Chinese community have helped him understand and communicate with the Chinese people better. The largest concentration of overseas Chinese living in the Caribbean is in Suriname, a scenic country situated on the northern coast of South America. Last year, the government of Suriname celebrated the 170th anniversary of Chinese settlement in the country as a national event.
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons, is a country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, to the northeast of Australia. It is directly adjacent to Papua New Guinea to the northwest, Australia to the southwest, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the southeast, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, and Tuvalu to the east, and Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia to the north. It has a total area of 28,896 square kilometres (11,157 sq mi), and a population of 734,887 according to the official estimates for mid 2023. Its capital, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the wider area of the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (currently a part of Papua New Guinea), but excludes the Santa Cruz Islands.The islands have been settled since at least some time between 30,000 and 28,800 BC, with later waves of migrants, notably the Lapita people, mixing and producing the modern indigenous Solomon Islanders population. In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them. Though not named by Mendaña, it is believed that the islands were called "the Solomons" by those who later received word of his voyage and mapped his discovery. Mendaña returned decades later, in 1595, and another Spanish expedition, led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, visited the Solomons in 1606. In June 1893, Captain Herbert Gibson of HMS Curacoa, declared the southern Solomon Islands a British protectorate. During World War II, the Solomon Islands campaign (1942–1945) saw fierce fighting between the United States, British Imperial forces, and the Empire of Japan, including the Battle of Guadalcanal.The official name of the then-British administration was changed from the "British Solomon Islands Protectorate" to "The Solomon Islands" in 1975, and self-government was achieved the following year. Independence was obtained, and the name changed to just "Solomon Islands" (without the definite article), in 1978. At independence, Solomon Islands became a constitutional monarchy. The King of Solomon Islands is Charles III, who is represented in the country by a governor-general.
The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomon Islands in June 1893, when Captain Herbert Gibson of HMS Curacoa, declared the southern islands a British protectorate.Christian missionaries began visiting the Solomons from the 1840s, beginning with an attempt by French Catholics under Jean-Baptiste Epalle to establish a mission on Santa Isabel Island, which was abandoned after Epalle was killed by islanders in 1845. Anglican missionaries began arriving from the 1850s, followed by other denominations, over time gaining a large number of converts.The Anglo-German Declarations about the Western Pacific Ocean (1886), established "spheres of influence" that Imperial Germany and the United Kingdom agreed, with Germany giving up its claim to the southern Solomon Islands. Following the formal declaration of the Protectorate in 1893, Bellona and Rennell Islands and Sikaiana (formerly the Stewart Islands) were added to the Protectorate in 1897, and the Santa Cruz group, the Reef Islands, Anuda (Cherry), Fataka (Mitre) and Trevannion Islands and Duff (Wilson) group in 1898. German interests in the islands to the east and south-east of Bougainville were transferred to the United Kingdom under the Samoa Tripartite Convention of 1899, in exchange for recognition of the German claim to Western Samoa. In October 1900, the High Commissioner issued a Proclamation extending the Protectorate to the islands in question, i.e. Choiseul, Ysabel, Shortland and Fauro Islands (each with its dependencies), the Tasman group, Lord Howe's group and Gower Island.The Protectorate was administered as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) until the Solomon Islands became independent in 1978. During the 1950s, the British colonial administration built a network of official local councils. On this platform Solomon Islanders with experience on the local councils started participation in central government, initially through the bureaucracy and then, from 1960, through the newly established Legislative and Executive Councils. The 1970 constitution replaced the Legislative and Executive Councils with a single Governing Council.A new constitution was introduced in 1974 which established a standard Westminster form of government and gave the Islanders both Chief Ministerial and Cabinet responsibilities. Governing Council was transformed into the Legislative Assembly. The Protectorate that existed over Solomon Islands was ended under the terms of the Solomon Islands Act 1978.
China's top official on Hong Kong affairs emphasized the importance of holding onto the bottom line of national security to safeguard the city's development following the enactment of new security laws. The new national security law aims to prohibit treason, sabotage, sedition, theft of state secrets, and espionage with potential life imprisonment. Despite criticisms from foreign governments like the United States and Britain, Beijing asserts that the laws are essential for maintaining stability and prosperity in Hong Kong. The laws have led to the arrest of over 290 individuals including prominent democracy activists and the closure of media outlets and civil society groups.
The Solomon Islands (archipelago) is an island group in the western South Pacific Ocean, north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The many islands of the archipelago are distributed across Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands (country). The largest island in the archipelago is Bougainville Island, which is a part of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (currently a part of Papua New Guinea) along with Buka Island, the Nukumanu Islands, and a number of smaller nearby islands. Much of the remainder falls within the territory of Solomon Islands and include the atolls of Ontong Java, Sikaiana, the raised coral atolls of Bellona and Rennell, and the volcanic islands of Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Makira, Malaita, New Georgia, the Nggelas, Santa Isabel, and the Shortlands. The Santa Cruz Islands are not a part of the archipelago.
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