Manasseh Sogavare, the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, said on Wednesday that he avoided this week’s summit of Pacific island leaders at the White House to avoid a “moral lesson” and because he had more pressing issues to deal with at home, reports Reuters.
Manasseh Sogavare (center) at the previous summit at the White House for the Pacific areaPhoto: Susan Walsh / AP – The Associated Press / Profimedia
Sogavare, who has built close ties with China, made the comments at a press conference on Wednesday after returning from the United States. He gave a speech at the UN during his visit to the US, but did not join other Pacific leaders for the two-day summit organized by the US presidency.
President Joe Biden welcomed Pacific island leaders to the White House on Monday for a summit for the second time in just over a year, launching a new diplomatic offensive to limit China’s growing influence in the region.
Sogavare also recalled on Wednesday that he participated in last year’s summit, but affirmed that “nothing was chosen” from it.
“They give you a moral lesson about how good they are,” he said of the American side.
The Solomon Islands prime minister instead praised China
He added that he was in a hurry to return home because the Solomon Islands parliament is due to go into recess in just 10 weeks and that this was more important than another meeting with Biden and other Pacific leaders at the White House.
James Marape, the prime minister of Papua New Guinea, instead said in a statement to the media on Wednesday that the US had promised significant new investments in the region’s infrastructure at the summit and that the meeting represented “a step forward for a more secure and prosperous Pacific “.
Biden promised leaders in the area that he would negotiate with the US Congress a new package worth 200 million dollars to finance projects in the Pacific to fight the effects of climate change, stimulate economic growth, fight illegal fishing and improve health systems public.
As for the Solomon Islands prime minister, he praised China’s offer of cooperation, which he said was “less restrictive”, in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York.
