The Solomon Islands only have a population of around 700,000 and are located far out in the Pacific, just under 2,000 kilometers northeast of Australia. As remote as it may sound, the island nation has allowed itself to be drawn into the middle of an international conflict. It has signed a security framework agreement with China, as the government in Honiara announced on Thursday. A previously available draft envisaged, for example, that „China may, according to its own needs and with the consent of the Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in, and have stopover and transition in Solomon Islands“.