During the visit, Sherman met with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Honiara…reports Asian Lite News
The United States has warned the Pacific Islands of a new struggle against violent power-hungry regimes, amid China’s military drills around Taiwan and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
During a visit to Solomon Islands to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II’s Battle of Guadalcanal, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman blasted a new crop of world leaders reviving “bankrupt” ideas about the use of force – without mentioning any countries.
Attending a dawn memorial service in the Solomon Islands, Sherman said “some around the world” had forgotten the cost of war, or were ignoring the lessons of the past, AFP reported.
She hit out at “leaders who believe that coercion, pressure, and violence are tools to be used with impunity”, but did not specify any names during her speech at the service, it reported.
The battle of Guadalcanal was a turning point in World War II.
The brutal seven-month land, sea and air fight between Allied and Japanese forces killed tens of thousands of troops — most Japanese.
Painting the situation today as carrying faint echoes of the fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the 1930-40s, the State Department number two urged the region to push back.
“We remember how bankrupt, how empty, such views were then, and remain today,” she said.
During the visit, Sherman met with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Honiara.
They discussed the US-Solomon Islands bilateral relationship, including cooperation in areas such as provision of COVID-19 vaccines, reducing poverty, enhancing climate resilience, increasing tourism investment, and deepening efforts to mitigate unexploded explosive ordnance (UXO) in Solomon Islands, a legacy of the Second World War, the State Department spokesperson Ned Prince said in a statement.
They also discussed developments affecting regional and global security. Sherman also highlighted recent developments in the process to open the US Embassy in Honiara.
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