The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday.
The China Civil Engineering Construction Company was the only company to submit a bid in the competitive tender, Mike Qaqara of the infrastructure development ministry told Reuters.
The Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year, prompting concern from the United States and its allies, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, over China's ambitions to build a naval base in the region.Delegations from China and the United States are visiting Honiara this week, competing for influence in the strategically-located Pacific islands nation.
Sogavare also held "strategic dialogue" with a visiting U.S. delegation, at which Kurt Campbell, the Indo-Pacific coordinator of the National Security Council, "reiterated our support for a free, open, secure, and prosperous Solomon Islands", the U.S. embassy in Honiara said in a statement.
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