The leader of the Solomon Islands - a strategic archipelago in the Pacific - has accused Australia and other Western nations of withdrawing financial support after the country confirmed a controversial policing pact with China.
Last year, Solomon Island's Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said the policing deal with China would offer protection from "external or internal threats" but it would not alter existing security arrangements with Australia.
Earlier this month, Sogavare confirmed the pact during a visit to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the new bilateral "comprehensive strategic partnership".
Sogavare has accused Australia and its allies of using a "coercive diplomatic approach" to target China-Solomon Islands relations. He has also alleged that Australia and other western countries are withdrawing some of their financial support for the islands.
He told a press conference in the capital, Honiara, Monday, that China had agreed to make up the shortfall.
"I am glad and really delighted to announce that the Peoples' Republic of China stepped up and committed itself to meet this shortfall by providing the budgetary support that is needed for 2023," Sogavare said.
Australia is increasingly anxious about China's ambitions in the Pacific, a region Australia and New Zealand have considered to be their traditional sphere of influence.
In a statement Monday, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) denied the Canberra government had reneged on any formal financial commitments.
Meg Keen, the director of the Pacific Islands Program at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based research organization, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Tuesday that she believes that Canberra has not cut financial support to Sogavare's government in the Solomon Islands.
"He is making a claim that the gap being left is because Australia has withdrawn its budget support and there is no evidence that that has occurred. And talking with people at DFAT it does not seem there is any indication that that has happened, nor has there been a cut to the aid program."
Analysts have said that Australia has announced several multi-million-dollar packages of financial support for the Solomon Islands in the past two years, including aid to help run elections in 2024, and for the Pacific Games in November.
