Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with his counterpart Prime Minister Matthew Wale in the capital of the Solomon Islands.
The two leaders promised to deepen their bi-lateral ties as they work to conclude a comprehensive treaty. Wale just took office in May, and has said he will negotiate that treaty with Australia and review a security agreement with China.
Albanese’s visit to the Solomons followed his signing a mutual defense alliance, known as the Ocean of Peace treaty, in Fiji on Monday. The alliance, which views an attack on one nation as an attack on the other, marks Fiji's first mutual defense pact.
The Pacific island nation has become Australia's fourth formal ally, joining the U.S., New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
Just hours after the new Fiji-Australia agreement was signed, China test-launched a ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine in the Pacific.
Albanese called it “a provocative act by China, which does destabilize the region.”
