New Zealand is yet to receive a substantial response from the Solomon Islands about its security pact with Beijing.
New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has said Pacific neighbours should be able to scrutinise the security deal between Solomon Islands and China. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Both countries have signed the deal, which could see China deploy police and military personnel in Solomons, but so far refuse to release it.
The pact took the New Zealand government by surprise when leaked in March; Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern describing it as "gravely concerning".
Nearly two months on, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said she is yet to receive a substantial response from Solomons.
"Not to the degree that we will feel confident as we go forward into having a conversation within the Pacific Islands Forum," Mahuta said.
"And in fact, I'm on the record as saying and still maintain that these discussions of Pacific security should be a matter for the Pacific Islands Forum."
Mahuta said New Zealand's engagement with Solomons on the pact had been at a "senior officials level" but that the upcoming forum was the best time to discuss it.
"Given the fact that [the Solomons] looked outside of the region for a security arrangement of this kind goes outside of what is understood to be our closest relationships, which is relying on each other.
"What I'd like to see is a commitment from all Pacific nations, including the Solomons, to elevate our strategic conversation around the impact of those arrangements on our regional security."
Mahuta said both she and Ardern planned on raising concerns about the security agreement at the upcoming Pacific Islands Forum.
"We need to continue to be able to feel that we can rely on each other in our times of need and New Zealand's certainly demonstrated that we are there for our Pacific partners, whether it comes to responding to times of unrest, like we have in the Solomons, to supporting countries through natural disasters, like we did in the most recent eruption in Tonga.
"We want to be able to continue to build trust by acting in a way where you rely on your nearest neighbours."
There was to-date no indication the Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Manasseh Sogovare would not be attending, she said.
A date for the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum has not yet been set.