THE signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be the next step in the process of Australia establishing the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) Training Centre and a Warehouse Precinct in Honiara.
Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele and his Australian counterpart Prime Minister Anthony Albanese jointly announced the RSIPF Training Centre in a statement when as the Australian Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Richard Marles paid a brief visit to Honiara on Saturday.
DPM Marles’ visit to Honiara came after Prime Minister Manele and Prime Minister Albanese signed the historic agreement policing partnership in 2024.
DPM Marles met with PM Manele and Members of the Government for National Unity and Transformation (GNUT) Cabinet.
Speaking to the local media after his engagements with the Solomon Islands Government, DPM Marles said the RSIPF Training Centre will see an increase in the capability of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF), whilst the Warehouse Precinct would deal with humanitarian relief supplies for natural disaster situations as well as education and medical supplies.
He said the next step in relation to this process is the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Honiara and Canberra and the agreement document will see the detailed implementation of these crucial projects.
“It was the MOU that we were speaking about today between myself and PM Manele and we’ve committed today to seeing that it be concluded as soon as possible and all the resources necessary to ensure that happens are being made available and we will certainly see that happen.
“What’s important to understand is that the MOU is very much driven by Solomon Islands. That is to say, we are seeking to address the priorities of the Solomon Islands Government in terms of how we grow the RSIPF and how we see the development of the training centre,” DPM Marles said.
DPM Marles said the RSIPF Training Centre will ensure a dramatic positive change for Solomon Islands in terms of policing capability.
“It will also really increase the police capability to operate right across the entire nation and we are really pleased to be able to support Solomon Islands in that endeavour,” he added.
Elaborating on the Warehouse Precinct, DPM Marles said the Solomon Islands Government is ambitious about establishing a warehouse in Honiara to store humanitarian relief supply materials for times of natural disasters.
“But not just that, a whole-of-government warehouse facility which will deal with educational materials, medical materials.
“And we are keen to partner with Solomon Islands on this project. I’ve made that clear to Honourable Manele today and we will look at how we can take the next steps as two governments in terms of delivering the project with Solomon Islands Government on the establishment of the warehouse precinct here in Honiara,” Marles said.
The Australian DPM said both projects are examples that the Australia-Solomon Islands relationship is in a ‘fantastic’ state.
“And we are thankful to the leadership of PM Manele in seeing the bilateral relationship between Australia and Solomon Islands taken to this place.
“We couldn’t be happier with where our relationship is at, the trajectory that it’s on, the closeness of our two governments, the way in which we are working as partners in delivering for Solomon Islands,” DPM Marles said.
By AGNES MENANOPO
Solomon Star, Honiara
