-PM Wale rejects Opposition claim shiprider agreement would surrender sovereignty
-Shiprider agreement enforces our sovereignty: PM Wale
BY JOSES SAREN
Prime Minister Matthew Wale has rejected claims that the proposed Shiprider Agreement with the United States will compromise Solomon Islands’ sovereignty, saying the country needs the arrangement more than the United States does.
Responding to a question on his arrival home yesterday afternoon on the Opposition Leader’s comments that government should not sign the agreement yet, Wale said Solomon Islands lacked enough patrol boats and fuel to police its own waters.
“This is not about giving up our sovereignty, do not mislead our country.
“It is about enforcing our sovereignty, enforcing our laws, and riding on, piggybacking on assets of our partners, that’s all it is,” Wale said.
He said the agreement treats Solomon Islands as a sovereign asset: when partner vessels — from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan — operate inside the country’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, local police can board alongside them to enforce Solomon Islands law, while fisheries officers can also board to act against illicit drug trafficking, poaching and unregulated and unreported fishing.
“There will always be boats in our EEZ, with law enforcement,” Wale said.
The Prime Minister said the agreement will sit within a broader comprehensive treaty with Australia, with negotiations having begun in Brisbane, where some government ministers remained to continue talks while he returned home.
During his Washington visit, Wale met Vice Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Thomas G Allan Jr, where discussions touched on the forthcoming signing of the Shiprider Agreement and wider maritime security cooperation in the Pacific.
On Monday this week Opposition leader Manasseh Sogavare called on prime minister Wale and the GREAT government, cautioning them to reconsider signing the shiprider agreement with the US.
Mr Sogavare argued that signing the agreement is akin to selling Solomon Islands’ sovereignty.
He adds that the agreement will be one in which only the US will have the capacity to utilise it to its interest while Solomon Islands will become a spectator.
The shiprider agreement is a security deal between the US and a partner country, which allows local law enforcement officers of the partner countries ride onboard US Coast Guard patrol ships. The local officers use the Coast Guard ships as base to check boats, stop illegal acts and protect their own ocean zones.
Photo credit: Island Sun
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