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Irvine, California — Jeremiah Manele and Charlot Salwai, the prime ministers of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, are in China this week. Their visits come as Beijing seeks to grow its bilateral ties with the two South Pacific nations and as China is increasingly competing for influence in the region with Australia, the United States and others.    Last week, China donated a presidential building to Vanuatu while Australia and New Zealand inaugurated an airfield in the Solomon Islands. During his first overseas trip to Australia last week, Manele sought Canberra’s support to double the Solomon Islands’ police force. The airfield and Australia’s security support are two key things analysts say China will focus on during Manele’s visit to Beijing this week.   “Everything happening in the region is viewed through a comparative lens and recent developments [in the Solomon Islands-Australia relationship] will be top of the agenda for the Chinese,” Michael Walsh, a visiting researcher at the Lasky Center for Transatlantic Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, told VOA by phone.   For Manele, the priority will be addressing the Solomon Islands’ economic issues, some experts say.  “[Since] the Solomon Islands’ economy is in a precarious state, Manele wants to demonstrate to Solomon Islanders that his government’s close relationship with Beijing will bring economic benefits that are tangible to their everyday lives,” Parker Novak, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, told VOA by phone.   Ahead of the trips, China’s Foreign Ministry said discussions will focus on issues of mutual interest and growing relations. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Manele’s trip would be a “great opportunity for the two sides to work together to further strengthen strategic communication, expand practical cooperation, and advance our bilateral ties.”  While former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was in office, the Solomon Islands deepened ties with China, including signing a police cooperation agreement with Beijing.   Manele was the Solomon Islands’ foreign minister during Sogavare’s tenure, and some analysts expect he’ll maintain a similar foreign policy agenda.   “He said he would maintain the standard position of ‘being friends to all and enemies to none’ for the Solomon Islands,” said Tess Newton Cain, an adjunct associate professor at Griffith Asia Institute in Australia.  “[While] the meat and bones of Solomon Islands’ foreign policy is not going to change significantly under Manele, he will be more moderate when it comes to presenting his administration’s foreign policy agenda,” Cain told VOA by phone.  After his trip to Australia, Manele told journalists that discussions about seeking Canberra’s support to expand the Solomon Islands’ police force won’t affect the island nation’s security arrangements with Beijing.   “The arrangements with the People’s Republic of China, including the police cooperation arrangements, will remain in place,” he said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  Following his trip to China, Manele travels to Japan to attend the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders meeting from July 16 to July 18.  Great power competition in Pacific   Despite a failed attempt to push through a regional security pact with 10 Pacific Island nations in 2022, China continues to seek opportunities to increase its influence in the Pacific.   China signed a police cooperation deal with the Solomon Islands last year and has offered to provide security support to Tonga for a Pacific Islands Forum taking place in August. Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said he was considering the offer.   Meanwhile, Kiribati’s acting police commissioner, Eeri Aritiera, told the Reuters news agency in February that a Chinese police delegation would support the island nation’s community policing program and IT department, raising concerns from some U.S. lawmakers.  In January, Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister, Justin Tkatchenko, revealed that his country was engaging in early talks with China about a potential security and policing deal, prompting a senior U.S. official to warn that security guarantees offered by Beijing may come with costs.   Since China has presented itself as a security stakeholder in the Pacific region, some experts say Beijing will likely keep building security partnerships with regional countries.   “[China] seeks to deepen its presence [in the Pacific] through existing mechanisms like policing and its growing maritime presence through its coast guard fleet,” said Anna Powles, an associate professor in security studies at Massey University in New Zealand.   While China seeks to expand its security footprint in the Pacific, the United States and other democratic countries have tried to counter China’s growing security presence in the Pacific in recent years, including Washington’s efforts to sign a security agreement with Papua New Guinea in 2023.  WATCH: US and Papua New Guinea sign security pact Despite these attempts, Walsh in Munich said China is still making inroads in several Pacific island nations, including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Kiribati.   “The West doesn’t seem to have an effective response,” he told VOA.   There is also the question of whether security deals align with the needs of Pacific island countries, said the Griffith Asia Institute’s Cain.  “While Pacific island countries don’t see China as posing any military threat to them, they need to have relevant security conversations with countries [they are engaging with] in order to talk about what they are really concerned about,” she told VOA.   To safeguard their interests, Novak at the Atlantic Council said regional countries are likely to try to foster positive relationships with all external partners, whether it’s the United States, Australia, or China.   “They believe [doing so] will ensure regional stability and sovereignty,” he told VOA. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

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The Children’s Hospital in Kyiv is struck by Russian missiles, at least 31 people were killed in shelling across the country. Putin’s ally, Viktor Orban of Hungary met with President Xi in Beijing as NATO prepares for its annual summit, to be held in Washington this week. A surprise defeat is handed to Marine La Pen and her far-right party in French elections, and Iran has a new president elect. Japan and the Philippines sign a military agreement. Plus, June set records for heat and journalists in Ghana are facing threats for covering environmental issues.

Washington — The United States plans to broaden oversight of foreigners' real estate transactions on properties close to military installations, the Treasury Department said Monday, as concerns involving Chinese land purchases grow.  "President [Joe] Biden and I remain committed to using our strong investment screening tool to defend America's national security, including actions that protect military installations from external threats," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.  Under a proposed rule, more than 50 facilities will be added to a list of sites where surrounding property transactions may be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — taking the total figure to 227.  CFIUS's jurisdiction covers land purchases as well.  The concern is that a foreigner's purchase or lease of certain properties could allow them to collect intelligence or "expose national security activities" to foreign surveillance risks, the Treasury noted.  A senior Treasury official said CFIUS's jurisdiction was "country-agnostic" and did not specify if the latest rule was aimed at quelling concerns directed at specific countries like China or Russia.  In May, U.S. authorities announced that a Chinese-owned crypto firm was barred from using land near a strategic U.S. nuclear missile base, over national security concerns.  MineOne Partners Limited was ordered to divest from land it bought in 2022, which sat less than a mile from Wyoming's Francis E. Warren Air Force Base — home to Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.  CFIUS had also raised concerns about the installation of "specialized" crypto mining equipment on the land which is "potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities." 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

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After recent years of mistrust, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends NATO’s summit in Washington on Tuesday, hoping to reset relations with Western allies. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

Talks to find a political way forward have started in France, following the stunning results of snap legislative elections Sunday that put the left, and not the far right, on top. The polls left the country with no clear political majority or path to forming a government, just three weeks before the Paris Olympics. Lisa Bryant reports from the suburb of Neuilly-Plaisance, just outside the French capital.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Paris — French President Emmanuel Macron refused the resignation of the country’s prime minister, asking him on Monday to remain temporarily as the head of the government after chaotic election results left the government in limbo. French voters split the legislature on the left, center and far right, leaving no faction even close to the majority needed to form a government. The results from Sunday’s vote raised the risk of paralysis for the European Union’s second-largest economy. Macron gambled that his decision to call snap elections would give France a “moment of clarification,” but the outcome showed the opposite, less than three weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics, when the country will be under an international spotlight. The French stock market fell on opening but quickly recovered, possibly because markets had feared an outright victory for the far right or the leftist coalition. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had said he would remain in office if needed but offered his resignation Monday morning. Macron, who named him just seven months ago, immediately asked him to stay on “to ensure the stability of the country.” Macron's top political allies joined the meeting with Attal at the presidential palace, which ended after about 90 minutes. Attal on Sunday made clear that he disagreed with Macron’s decision to call the surprise elections. The results of two rounds of voting left no obvious path to form a government for either the leftist coalition that came in first, Macron’s centrist alliance, or the far right. Newly elected and returning lawmakers were expected to gather at the National Assembly to begin negotiations in earnest. Macron himself will leave midweek for a NATO summit in Washington. Political deadlock could have far-ranging implications for the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe’s economic stability. Still, at least one leader said the results were a relief. “In Paris enthusiasm, in Moscow disappointment, in Kyiv relief. Enough to be happy in Warsaw,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Union Council head, wrote late Sunday on X. According to official results released early Monday, all three main blocs fell far short of the 289 seats needed to control the 577-seat National Assembly, the more powerful of France’s two legislative chambers. The results showed just over 180 seats for the New Popular Front leftist coalition, which placed first, ahead of Macron’s centrist alliance, with more than 160 seats. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and its allies were restricted to third place, although their more than 140 seats were still way ahead of the party’s previous best showing of 89 seats in 2022. Macron has three years remaining on his presidential term. Rather than rallying behind Macron as he'd hoped, millions took the vote as an opportunity to vent anger about inflation, crime, immigration and other grievances — including his style of government. The New Popular Front’s leaders immediately pushed Macron to give them the first chance to form a government and propose a prime minister. The faction pledges to roll back many of Macron’s headline reforms, embark on a costly program of public spending, and take a tougher line against Israel because of its war with Hamas. But it's not clear, even among the left, who could lead the government without alienating crucial allies. “We need someone who offers consensus,” said Olivier Faure, head of the Socialist Party, which joined the leftist coalition and was still sorting out how many seats it won on Monday. Macron warns that the left’s economic program of many tens of billions of euros in public spending, partly financed by taxes on wealth and hikes for high earners, could be ruinous for France, already criticized by EU watchdogs for its debt. A hung parliament is unknown territory for modern France and many people reacted with a mix of relief and apprehension. “What pollsters and the press were telling us made me very nervous so it’s a huge relief. Big expectations as well,” said Nadine Dupuis, a 60-year-old legal secretary in Paris. “What’s going to happen? How are they going to govern this country?” The political agreement between the left and center to block the National Rally was largely successful. Many voters decided that keeping the far right from power was more important than anything else, backing its opponents in the runoff, even if they weren’t from the political camp they usually support. “Disappointed, disappointed,” said far-right supporter Luc Doumont, 66. “Well, happy to see our progression, because for the past few years we’ve been doing better.” National Rally leader Le Pen, who was expected to make a fourth run for the French presidency in 2027, said the elections laid the groundwork for “the victory of tomorrow.” Racism and antisemitism marred the electoral campaign, along with Russian disinformation campaigns, and more than 50 candidates reported being physically attacked — highly unusual for France. Unlike other countries in Europe that are more accustomed to coalition governments, France doesn’t have a tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a majority. France is also more centralized than many other European countries, with many more decisions made in Paris.