By Lucy Craymer
SUVA, Fiji, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The Solomon Islands is repairing ties with traditional partners including the U.S. and Australia while maintaining its “friends to all and enemy to none” foreign policy, Foreign Minister Rick Houenipwela said on Friday, signalling a broader diplomatic approach under new Prime Minister Matthew Wale.
Houenipwela said some longstanding partners had felt “out in the cold” in recent years and the government wanted to bring them back into closer engagement.
“We have to restore relationships,” Houenipwela told Reuters on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum foreign ministers’ meeting in Suva, the capital of Fiji.
The comments follow a flurry of overseas engagements by Wale’s government since he was elected prime minister in May, replacing a leadership that had deepened ties with Beijing and signed a security pact with China that alarmed the United States and its allies.
Wale, a former China critic, visited Australia in July and Canberra pledged stronger relations with Honiara amid concerns over Beijing’s influence in the Pacific. He also travelled to Washington last month for talks on deepening U.S.-Solomon Islands ties and signed a letter of intent aimed at restoring the Peace Corps programme.
Houenipwela described Wale’s U.S. visit, which also included a stop in Tokyo, as “very productive”.
The government’s outreach comes as Pacific leaders confront mounting strategic competition between China and Western partners. Ministers meeting in Suva are discussing regional leadership and other business, with Houenipwela saying there had so far been consensus on the agenda.
The foreign minister said the government’s effort to reconnect with traditional partners did not alter its overarching foreign-policy principle.
“Our main framework is friends to all and enemy to none,” he said.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
