Australia Entangled in a Diplomatic Battle with the Solomon Islands

Australian officials, who have become the latest subject of a diplomatic debate, alongside their Solomon Islands counterparts, delivered quite a direct warning to small Pacific states' leaders that supported the Solomon Islands, on Monday, that they must perform a more serious cut down on corrupt practices as well as improve economic management in exchange for the substantial aid they are receiving.

The man to deliver such warnings was Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who arrived today in Fiji, on occasion of the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum, amid a terrible diplomatic row, revolving around an attempt to extradite the Solomons' attorney-general, which pitted the Islands, as well as other Pacific states, against Australia, which is currently accused of having broken the sovereignty right of the former.

"These actions are certainly a serious violation of Solomon Islands territorial sovereignty and integrity", leaders of Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, Fiji and Vanuatu declared in a joint official statement. The document also highlighted the fact that the raid performed by the Australian police on the office of the Solomons' Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare last week was "provocative and unnecessary" and violated the United Nations convention.

The reason for the raid was because the police wanted to find the circumstances through which the new Solomons' Attorney-General Julian Moti, also an Australian citizen, who has been charged with child abuse-related offences in Australia, managed to flee the country and return to his homeland on a flight operated by a Papua New Guinea air company two weeks before. The incidents implicating Moti took place in Vanuatu in 1997.

The man had been arrested on September 29th in Papua New Guinea but escaped bail and established himself in a diplomatic mission in Port Moresby, the capital city of the Solomon Islands. It is because of this that the Canberra administration has requested his extradition on numerous occasions.

After rejecting the legality of such accusations, the Australian Prime Minister reminded the Pacific nations that the multi-billion dollar aid they are receiving does come with a series of responsibilities and obligations from their part, a point he announced he would make during the forum.