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Under separate agreements with Nauru, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, Australia must mitigate China’s influence in the region.

By Victoria Kim

Reporting from Sydney, Australia

A bank. A rugby team. A police force.

Over the span of 12 days — and in time for Christmas — Australia has unveiled a string of deals with Pacific Island nations to dole out what those countries may have put on the top of their wish lists. The agreements appeared to be the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts aimed at curbing China’s growing influence in a strategically vital corridor of the Pacific Ocean.

On Friday, Australia announced the latest deal, a A$190 million ($118 million) deal for the Solomon Islands to increase its police force over four years.

The Solomon Islands are at the center of an intense festival between China, the United States and their allies. In 2022, the country of 700,000 people signed a secret security pact that appeared to give Beijing broad latitude to exert its influence and use the islands as a stopover for military operations.

Signed after an era of violent unrest rocked the Solomon Islands in 2021, it allowed China to send armed police or military forces to help. The deal has sparked fear among officials in Canberra and Washington.

Since then, the Biden administration has made a clear diplomatic push into the Pacific, opening embassies, pledging investments and hosting leaders at a summit at the White House while nudging Australia to build up its influence in the region.

But Chinese police training officials are already in the Solomon Islands. The Australian deal announced on Friday did not appear to contain commitments from the Solomons to alter existing pacts with China or to preclude it from entering into future ones.

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