NEW DELHI: On ‘The Gist’, Cleo Paskal, Senior Non-Resident Fellow focusing on the Indo-Pacific region at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies(FDD) and an Associate Fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House in conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi.
Ms Paskal analyses the roots of unrest in the Solomon Islands in the “perceived interference by the Chinese Communist Party(CCP)”, Prime Minister Mannaseh Sogavare switching his country’s diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China, the island of Malaita’s Premier Daniel Suidani’s strident and persistent opposition to the CCP and its proxies, Australia sending security forces to ‘secure’ the country and why it shouldn’t be doing China’s heavy-lifting, Beijing “buying local politicians”, its massive push in Oceania in its strategy to break out of the “bathtub” of the South and East China Seas and the U.S., Australia, India and the Quad as “a viable option to China’s onslaught”.
