Gleaming new Ford Rangers bookend the flag-bearing motorcades that have been traversing the main thoroughfare in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, all week long. They are gifts from Australia to the local police force.
The police are escorting visiting dignitaries, who ride in luxury Great Wall Motor Tank 500 cars. These vehicles are courtesy of China and are so new that plastic film still lines their interiors.
This is the latest chapter of a battle to win influence in the Pacific islands.
Honiara is a city of about 100,000, where traffic lights are largely nonexistent, many cars are castoffs from overseas and road sealing is very much a work in progress. So when it was gearing up to host one of the region’s biggest annual gatherings, the Pacific Islands Forum, for the first time since 1992, new wheels suddenly became a priority.
Australia, a forum member, gave 61 vehicles. China gave 27.
In back-to-back news releases two weeks before the summit, Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele thanked Australia (noting that the fleet was valued at $3.5 million), and then China (whose gift was valued at $1 million). The donations reflected the “strong and enduring partnership” between the Solomon Islands and each of the countries, Mr. Manele said in each statement.
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