Australia doesn’t want its forces operating alongside ‘ruthless’ Chinese in Solomon Islands | Anthony Galloway
But the Australian government is now rethinking its approach in the wake of the country’sAustralia’s top spy Andrew Shearer confirmed on Wednesday there would be concerns with “unity of command” on the ground if Australian and Chinese forces had to operate side-by-side.
Shearer said the security deal “wasn’t an intelligence failure, this strategy has been unfolding for a number of years”. “The way the Chinese presence would operate would be brutal and repressive – just like they are at home, and we would not want to be complicit or accountable for their behaviour,” Shoebridge said.
“We have been the security backstop in that country since 2003, and we should retain that commitment,” he said. “But we should also make it very clear that we would be very worried how to manage it operationally were China asked to do the same.” She said Beijing was “clearly very aware we are in a federal election campaign at the moment” and alleged it was “political interference”.“I think the one ... thing we should be at least taking notice of and paying attention to is the timing of the announcement from deals in relation to Solomon Islands,” she told Brisbane radio station 4BC.
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