New Zealand Aid and Development Dialogues

Hi and welcome to another NZADDs update,

As you may have noticed, China has signed a security agreement with Solomon Islands. This has entailed frantic commentary from Australian and New Zealand pundits. It has drawn heated political debate in Australia, as well as comments from NZ politicians. Our politicians haven’t been as strident, but their statements have still tended to miss the mark.

Over the weekend I published a post on Devpolicy correcting errors regarding the China agreement, and explaining why our current approach to geopolitics in the Pacific is likely to harm both the region, and our own interests.

Also, if you’re interested in views from people in Solomons, please have a read of these three Op-Eds from: Transform Aqorau, Tarcisius Kabutaulaka and Derek Futaiasi.

Terence