TRANSCRIPT
An Australian Defence Force marching band welcomes Solomon Islands President Jeremiah Manele to Canberra.
It's the first state visit to any country by the new leader of the Pacific island nation, since taking power following elections in May.
The federal government hopes the week-long visit will reaffirm Australia's position as the Solomons' main partner, amid heightened tensions in the Pacific region.
At a joint press conference, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia and the Solomons had "connected futures".
"We share a region, we share an ocean, and we share a history of cooperation. As Prime Minister Manele has said, Australia is Solomon Island's partner of choice and we do not take this for granted."
Bilateral discussions ranged from health to climate change, but the leaders emerged from talks with security as a top priority.
And Mr Albanese responded directly to a request for more support in ongoing policing and defence cooperation programmes.
"Prime Minister Manele has raised with me his proposal to grow the size of the Solomon Islands police force to 3000 officers as a first step to strengthen security and stability in the Solomon Islands, and we have tasked to continue discussions on how this request could further strengthen sovereignty and regional stability and to work together on next steps."
That includes a new three-tier security arrangement, which a joint statement said would help the Solomons "reduce its reliance on external partners".
Tensions have increased since Mr Manele's predecessor, Manasseh Sogovare, signed a security pact with China in 2022.
Graeme Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University.
He says the Albanese government's use of the language of a Pacific "family" is revealing.
"When you talk about family, it's a case of who is in the family and who is out of the family, and it's rather obvious and unspoken who's not part of the Pacific family, that would of course be China. They also used a lot of words like transformational so it seems that there's going to be an intensification of Australia's support for the Solomon Islands in policing and in other sectors."
The government has long expressed its unease about China's moves to increase its influence in the region.
Speaking in Canberra, Prime Minister Manele praised Australia for its assistance, but stressed the importance of working with both countries.
"Of course we do acknowledge and appreciate that our partners, China and Australia, they have security strategic interests as well. In our case we see security through a development lens. As a country we have wider and deeper development interests, that it is important to work with all our partners to address these development challenges going forward."
Former prime minister Manasseh Sogovare stepped down after elections that followed domestic unrest and a period of three years of recession.
Professor Smith says it's in Australia's national interest for the island nation to start growing their economy, even if relations don't return to pre-2022 levels.
"I think things are not quite back on track, but I think the Australian government is enjoin the change in that they're experiencing under Manele, there's a lot less fire and brimstone then there has been in recent years."
Mr Manele's next state visit is to China, before joining other Pacific island nations for a meeting in Tokyo in July.
