What China said to concerns it is building a military base in the South Pacific

China has “no intention” to build a military base in the Solomon Islands, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday, rejecting speculations on the objective of a recent security pact with the island’s state of the Pacific. The Chinese Minister remarked after landing in the capital of the Solomon Islands Honiara to start a tour of eight nations which raised concerns concerning military and economic ambitions in full expansion of Beijing in the South Pacific region.

Last month, China said it has signed a large security pact with the Solomon Islands, an agreement that many fear giving Beijing a military foot in the South Pacific. A project disclosed from the agreement published earlier was frank on the provisions allowing Beijing to deploy naval assets and armed police, as well as “legal and judicial immunity” for Chinese personnel.

“It is not imposed on anyone, and it is not targeted on a third party. There is no intention to establish a military base at all,” Wang told journalists today after meeting the minister Foreign affairs of the Solomon Islands, Jeremiah Manele. The worried Western powers consider the Pact as a potentially major change in local geopolitics, because it gives China direct access to the South Pacific, notably Australia and New Zealand.The Solomon Islands have a great strategic meaning, as was obvious during the Second World War, when it served as a rampart for Australia against the Japanese in advance.

Finally, the Solomon Islands are also on critical shipping routes, which means that China could potentially control maritime traffic in and around the region.Wang has at the end of such fears, saying: “China’s cooperation with the island countries of the Pacific does not target any country and should not be interfered or disturbed by any other country.”

He also seemed to extend a branch of olive tree to other Pacific powers, claiming that international relations respected by the nations of the Pacific island have respected with others and would explore partnerships to three in some cases.