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A6 WORLD NEWS
Friday 15 July 2022
Solomons leader: Chinese base would make his people targets

SUVA, Fiji (AP) — Solo- Australia is.”
mon Islands Prime Minister “I welcome his (Sogava-
Manasseh Sogavare said re’s) comments ruling out
Thursday that his country’s there being a Chinese base
new security pact with Bei- (near) Australia,” Albanese
jing would not allow China said.
to build a military base on New Zealand Prime Min-
the South Pacific nation ister Jacinda Ardern said
and make his citizens “tar- she had spoken frankly with
gets for potential military Sogavare during a meet-
strikes.” ing on Wednesday of her
Sogavare struck an agree- concerns about the Chi-
ment with Beijing in April to nese pact. She said the
provide security support. two leaders found “com-
Details of the pact haven’t mon ground” on the need
been made public but the to limit militarization in the
deal has raised fears of a region.
permanent Chinese mili- The leaders’ summit has
tary facility within 2,000 kilo- been soaked in geopoliti-
meters (1,200 miles) of the cal tension between Chi-
northeast Australian coast. na and the United States,
He used a meeting of Pa- which have both shown
cific island nation leaders Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare reviews an honor guard during a welcome heightened strategic inter-
Thursday in Fiji to strongly ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Oct. 9, 2019. est in the region.
deny that his country would Associated Press Fiji Prime Minister Frank
become a Chinese military Bainimarama, who chaired
foothold in the South Pa- agreement. And that’s a Australia have told the Wednesday at their first the summit, told his fellow
cific. very important point that Solomon Islands that the face-to-face meeting that leaders in an opening ad-
“The moment we establish we continue to reiterate to country hosting a Chinese took place in Suva during a dress that the “global and
a foreign military base, we the family in the region,” he military base would not be Pacific Islands Forum lead- geopolitical landscape is
immediately become an added. tolerated. ers’ summit. The forum had hotly competitive.”
enemy. And we also put Without naming the United New Australian Prime Min- been a collection of 18 is- “We are seeing a multipolar
our country and our peo- States or the Solomons’ key ister Anthony Albanese land nations until Kiribati system emerge, all clamor-
ple as targets for potential security partner Australia, ‘s government has since withdrew this week. ing to shape the world in
military strikes,” Sogavare Sogavare told his parlia- been elected on a promise Albanese described the their favor,” Bainimarama
told reporters in the capital ment in May that oppo- of more aid and engage- meeting as “very construc- said.
Suva. nents of the Chinese pact ment with the country’s is- tive,” stressing that “inter- Bainimarama invited U.S.
“There is no military base, had threatened his country land neighbors. ests of Australia would not Vice President Kamala Har-
nor any other military fa- and insulted it. Sogavare greeted Al- be served by having a mili- ris to deliver a virtual ad-
cility or institutions, in the Both the United States and banese with a hug on tary base so close to where dress on Wednesday. q
Outbreaks from animals in Africa surge by 60% in last decade

LONDON (AP) — The num- travel across the continent not been known to cause
ber of outbreaks of diseases have made it easier for vi- significant outbreaks be-
that jumped from animals ruses to cross borders, she yond central and West Af-
to humans in Africa has said. rica, where it has sickened
surged by more than 60% in WHO also noted that Af- people for decades. Ac-
the last decade, the World rica has the world’s fastest- cording to the U.S. Centers
Health Organization said, growing population, which for Disease Control and
a worrying sign the plan- increases urbanization and Prevention, there are now
et could face increased reduces roaming areas for more than 11,000 cases
animal-borne diseases like wild animals. Scientists also worldwide in 65 countries,
monkeypox, Ebola and fear that outbreaks that the majority of which had
coronavirus in the future. may have once been con- not previously reported
There has been a 63% rise tained to distant, rural ar- monkeypox.
in the number of animal eas can now spread more WHO announced that it will
diseases breaching the quickly to Africa’s large cit- hold an emergency meet-
species barrier from 2012 to A medical worker sprays people being discharged from the ies with international travel ing next week to assess if
2022, as compared to the Island Clinic Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia, on links, that might then carry monkeypox should be de-
decade before, the U.N. Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. the diseases around the clared a global emergen-
health agency said in a Associated Press world. cy. Last month, the agency
statement on Thursday. During the West Africa Eb- said the outbreak did not
There was a particular spike were responsible for 70% of Africa from becoming a ola outbreak that began in yet warrant the declaration
from 2019 to 2020, when those outbreaks, in addi- hotspot for emerging infec- 2014, it was not until the dis- but said it would review is-
diseases originating in ani- tion to illnesses like monkey- tious diseases,” WHO’s Af- ease arrived in capital cit- sues such as the possibil-
mals that later infected pox, dengue, anthrax and rica director, Dr. Matshidiso ies that its spread became ity that monkeypox might
humans, made up half of plague. Moeti said in a statement. explosive, ultimately killing be infecting more vulner-
all significant public health “We must act now to con- While diseases in animals more than 10,000 people able populations like chil-
events in Africa, said WHO. tain zoonotic diseases be- had infected people for and arriving in several cities dren, and whether the vi-
Diseases like Ebola and fore they can cause wide- centuries in Africa, recent in Europe and the U.S. rus is causing more severe
other hemorrhagic fevers spread infections and stop developments like quicker Until May, monkeypox had disease.q