A US top level delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, and the National Security Council’s (NSC) Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell has landed in Honiara.
The high-level US delegation is in Honiara for discussions, a key concern being the recently signed security treaty between Solomon Islands and China.
While the high level US delegation remains in Honiara, and talk is in the air about the re-opening of a US Embassy again in the national capital, closed for near on 30 years, it might be opportune to remind the US visitors of the United States commitment to clearing its unexploded WW2 ordinance that has mimed and kills so many innocent Solomon Islanders over the interceding years since the great land battles for the control of the Solomons from the grip of Japanese Imperial Forces
In 2019, the former US Ambassador based in Port Moresby, Erin McKee, said the US was committed to bomb disposal clearance in the Solomon Islands, but unless I am wrong nothing has been done in that regard by the US in the intervening years.
Today would especially be a good time to remind the US visitors of the pledge to remove the unexploded ordinance that remains a grave risk to lives at home because the RSIPF ‘s ordinance team are about to start destroying WW2 ordinance scattered far and wide across the Western Province.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
