A photo taken on April 22, 2022 shows China's ambassador to the Solomon Islands Li Ming (R), and Solomons Prime Pinister Manasseh Sogavare (L) cutting a ribbon during the opening ceremony of a China-funded national stadium complex in Honiara. The stadium complex, reportedly worth 53 million USD, will host the 2023 Pacific Games for the first time in the island state of 800,000 people. Mavis Podokolo, Agence France-Presse
SYDNEY - A Chinese state company has been awarded a contract to upgrade international and domestic ports in the Solomon Islands as part of a multimillion-dollar infrastructure project funded by the Asian Development Bank, a bank spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. signed an agreement with the government of the southern Pacific island nation on Tuesday to upgrade the ports, including ones in the capital Honiara, under the $170 million project, the government said in a statement.
"This will see the rehabilitation of the old Honiara International Port and construction of the Honiara Domestic Port and two provincial ports," the statement said.
The Chinese company was awarded the contract for the Land and Maritime Connectivity Project in mid-2022 through an international tender process overseen by the international lender, according to the statement.
The land component of the project will see the company upgrade major roads in and around Honiara.
The Solomon Islands signed a wide-reaching security pact with China in April last year that reportedly allows Beijing to deploy its military and dock vessels in the strategically significant nation, prompting concern from the United States, Japan and others over China's growing influence in the region.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has repeatedly denied that the pact would allow China to establish a military presence in the islands.
The Land and Maritime Connectivity Project is jointly funded by the ADB and the Solomon Islands government, with almost $150 million of the total $170 million cost provided as grants and concessional loans from the international lender.
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa of Samoa, one of 10 Pacific island nations that declined to sign a regional security and trade pact with China last year, told reporters during a visit to Australia on Wednesday that there are concerns the Solomon Islands port could become dual purpose for both commercial and military activity.
"This is a commercial port, although I think the fears are it might morph into something else," Mata'afa told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Mata'afa pointed out that other countries also have military or naval stations in the region and stressed that every state has the sovereign right to choose its own path.
==Kyodo