The Solomon Islands’ new government sees security and development as closely linked, while pushing for stronger national ownership of security policy and continued regional cooperation.
Minister for National Planning and Development Coordination, Peter Kenilorea Jr, said the country’s approach was shaped by its own experience of unrest and external support, including the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands.
“For us, in the Solomons, it’s an issue to do with development,” he said.
“We see security and development as two sides of the same coin.”
He said the government wants to draw a clearer line between domestic control and regional partnership.
“We have actually gone through security issues ourselves,” Kenilorea said.
“It comes from a practical place whereby we have learned that it’s so important for us to ensure that our security is one that ensures our own sovereign understanding of it.”
At the same time, he said Solomon Islands recognises that instability at home can quickly become a wider regional concern.
“What happened in Solomon Islands ended up being a regional issue for many other countries to come in and join us,” he said.
“We’re really looking to have that conversation deeper even within ourselves in the country, have ownership of our own security space.”
Kenilorea said the government also wants to strengthen collective security across the Pacific.
“We’re looking to see how we can take it to an even higher level where all of us can benefit from a safer Pacific, including through the oceans, the blue continent kind of outlook towards that,” he said.
