The Solomon Islands have suspended foreign naval ships from entering their territorial waters pending the adoption of a new process for approval of port visits, the prime minister's office said Tuesday, in a bid to better police its exclusive economic zones.
The move followed an incident last week when a U.S. Coast Guard vessel Oliver Henry was unable to make a routine port call because the government did not respond to a request for it to refuel and provisions.
"We have requested our partners to give us time to review, and put in place our new processes, before sending further requests for military vessels to enter the country," Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare said in a statement.
"These will universally apply to all visiting naval vessels," he said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
Sogavare added that he wanted to build national capacity to police the Pacific island nation's exclusive economic zones.
The Solomon Islands have had "unfortunate experiences of foreign naval vessels entering the country's waters during the course of the year without diplomatic clearance granted," the statement said, without naming the countries.
The suspension of naval ship visits will be lifted when a new process is in place.
In a speech on Tuesday afternoon to welcome the visiting U.S. hospital ship Mercy, Sogavare said the delay over the Oliver Henry was because the information had not been sent to his office on time.
The Solomon Islands has had a tense relationship with the United States and its allies since striking a security pact with China earlier this year.
Earlier, the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, the Australian capital, had said the Solomon Islands had notified it of a moratorium on navy vessels entering its ports.
"On Aug. 29, the United States received formal notification from the government of Solomon Islands regarding a moratorium on all naval visits, pending updates in protocol procedures," the embassy said in a statement.
The embassy said Mercy had arrived before the moratorium.
"The U.S. Navy ship Mercy received diplomatic clearance prior to the moratorium being implemented. We will continue to closely monitor the situation," the embassy said.
Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard vessel Oliver Henry was on patrol for illegal fishing in the South Pacific for a regional fisheries agency when it failed to obtain entry to refuel at Honiara, the Solomons' capital.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson on Monday said the "lack of diplomatic clearance for the Oliver Henry was regrettable," and the United States was pleased the Mercy had received clearance.
The Mercy's humanitarian mission, together with personnel from Australia and Japan, will include community health outreach, engineering projects, and discussions on disaster relief.
Separately, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said it was regrettable that "we've seen the Chinese try to bully and coerce nations throughout the Indo-Pacific to do their bidding and to serve what they believe their selfish national security interests are, rather than the broader interests of a free and open Indo-Pacific."
