When news broke that China and Solomon Islands were planning to sign a new security agreement, the reaction in Australia was one of alarm and concern.
Details of the final security treaty have not been made public, but draft documents leaked in late March show Chinese military personnel and equipment could be stationed in the Pacific nation.
This has led to growing fears in Canberra that Beijing could establish a military presence in Solomon Islands, which lies about 2,000 kilometres north-east of Australia.
How does it impact Australia?
Tensions between China and Australia have been rising for years since the ban on Huawei, and a long list of political disputes over trade, defence, cyber attacks and recently Russia's invasion of Ukraine has soured relations.
But at the heart of the matter is China's emergence as the great rival of the United States — Australia's traditional strategic ally.
As ANU Strategic Studies Professor Hugh White told Radio National Breakfast in February, "[Australia's] problem with Beijing goes right to the fact that they want to take America's place as the dominant power in East Asia and we don't want them to".
Jade Guan, a lecturer in strategic studies at Deakin University and a China scholar, said Australia wanted to play a leadership role among countries in the South Pacific.
By forming security ties to a neighbouring country, a move Australia's Minister of Defence Peter Dutton described as "aggressive", China's influence in the region continues to expand.
China's growing ties with Solomon Islands
China's influence in the South Pacific has grown rapidly in the last decade, and many countries in the region have established economic deals with Beijing.
These deals are part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, a global development strategy to create trade routes and increase Beijing's influence around the world.
"China would like to expand its influence in terms of its economic clout into the South Pacific for either resources interests or investment interests," Dr Guan said.
But China's interests are not only economic.
Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii, said while China did not have overseas military bases like the US did, Beijing created partnerships to extend its security apparatus globally.
Increasingly, China's influence overseas was also helping Beijing gain support for its position on Taiwan, Dr Guan said.
"Even though the Solomon Islands is a very small country, it is a sovereign state. It has the vote in the UN system," she said.
Essentially China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually need to be reunified, while Taiwan sees itself as a democracy.
In 2019, Solomon Islands struck a new diplomatic deal with China and ended its 36 year relationship with Taiwan.
Taiwan has worked hard to create alliances in the Pacific, but China has won over many of its allies and encouraged them to adopt the One-China policy.
Countries who acknowledge the policy do not have an official diplomatic relationship with Taiwan.
But not everyone in Solomon Islands has been happy about Beijing’s growing influence.
Last year, violent protests broke out in the capital Honiara, and they were, in part, linked to the growing ties with China and the split with Taiwan.
Under Australia's existing security agreement with Solomon Islands, troops and police were sent to Honiara to help quell the violence at the request of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
What can Solomon Islands gain from the deal?
In a speech to Parliament defending the proposed security agreement, Prime Minister Sogavare said while Solomon Islands' traditional security partners including Australia remained important, Honiara wished to diversify its partners to "achieve our security needs".
According to Dr Kabutaulaka, whose research focuses on China in the Pacific, Solomon Islands could benefit from the proposed security agreement with Beijing.
"Australia provides a lot [of security support] but not enough to enable the police to operate, particularly in a country that is geographically dispersed," he said.
But Dr Kabutaulaka said China was not only supplying equipment, it was providing police training, and it was important to question if Beijing's policing model was appropriate for Solomon Islands.
"I don't see that discussion taking place [in Solomon Islands] in this case," Dr Kabutaulaka said.
While Australia remains the biggest aid donor to Solomon Islands, experts say the country could benefit economically from establishing closer ties to China.
"I think they have the opportunity to use China's source of economic aid, especially in terms of infrastructure development," Dr Guan said.
However, she warned Solomon Islands would need to be able to manage its relationship with China, and avoid any pitfalls such as potential debt traps.
Managing the rivalry between the great powers may prove more complex for Solomon Islands.
"The question more for [Pacific Island countries] is having the capacity to be able to manage these relationships and accepting that they are going to be caught up in this geopolitical rivalry," Dr Kabutaulaka said.
Dr Kabutaulaka said there was great excitement within Solomon Islands' government about the opportunities the relationship with China could offer, "because they see the kind of money that could potentially come in".
"But there is no attempt to really understand how the Chinese state works," he said.
