If you wanted to nominate a country in the world with zero strategic significance, the Solomon Islands might sound like a good shout. An archipelago of almost 1,000 islands in the southern Pacific with a total population of about 700,000, the Solomons seem safely distant from great power politics. The country’s head of state is the British monarch, but the last visit by the sovereign was 40 years ago. China is more than 6,000km away; Australia, roughly 2,000km away.

Despite their remoteness, the Solomon Islands have become an unlikely flashpoint in the growing strategic rivalry between China and the west. The signature of a security pact between the Solomons and China in April sparked alarm in Washington and Canberra.

Kurt Campbell, a senior White House official, jumped on a plane in an unsuccessful bid to repair the damage. Penny Wong, who is Australia’s foreign minister, argued that the Canberra government of the time, led by Scott Morrison, had by its negligence committed Australia’s “worst foreign policy blunder in the Pacific since world war two”.