The Solomon Islands government has put a moratorium on navy vessels entering its ports, saying it needs to review approval requirements and procedures.
The moratorium comes amid increasing tensions between Solomon Islands and the US and its allies since the Pacific nation struck a security pact with China earlier this year.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said in a statement recent problems encountered by US and British ships docking at Honiara were due primarily to appropriate information not being sent to the Office of Prime Minister on time.
“We have requested our partners to give us time to review, and put in place our new processes, before sending further requests for military vessels to enter the country,” Mr Sogavare said.
“These will universally apply to all visiting naval vessels,” he said.
The statement said foreign vessels had entered the country’s waters during the year without diplomatic clearance.
It added that Solomon Islands wanted to build national capacity to police the Pacific island nation’s exclusive economic zones.
“Once the process and procedures are in place suspension of naval vessel visits will be lifted,” it said.
Last week, the US Coast Guard revealed one of its vessels was unable to enter Solomon Islands for a routine port call because the government did not respond to a request for it to refuel and provision.
“Unfortunately, by the time the approval was communicated on the evening of 20th August 2022, the ship’s captain had decided to leave our waters,” Mr Sogavare, who spoke at a ceremony to welcome the visiting US Navy hospital ship Mercy, was quoted in the statement as saying.
The British navy vessel, HMS Spey, also recently failed to get clearance to dock.
‘We will continue to closely monitor the situation’
The US embassy in Canberra said in a statement on Tuesday it had received notification of the moratorium on all naval visits “pending updates in protocol procedures”.
The US embassy said Mercy had arrived for a two-week mission before the moratorium.
“The US Navy ship Mercy received diplomatic clearance prior to the moratorium being implemented. We will continue to closely monitor the situation,” the embassy said.
The US Coast Guard vessel, Oliver Henry, was on patrol for illegal fishing in the South Pacific for a regional fisheries agency when it failed to obtain entry to refuel at Honiara, the Solomons’ capital, a US Coast Guard press officer said in an emailed statement on Friday.
A US State Department spokesperson said the “lack of diplomatic clearance for the Oliver Henry was regrettable”, and the US was pleased the Mercy had received clearance.
The Mercy’s humanitarian mission, together with personnel from Australia and Japan, will include community health outreach, engineering projects and discussions on disaster relief.
Separately, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was regrettable that “we’ve seen the Chinese try to bully and coerce nations throughout the Indo-Pacific to do their bidding and to serve what they believe their selfish national security interests are, rather than the broader interests of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Source: ABC news