Our former Foreign Affairs minister warns successive governments have failed to invest properly in the Pacific.

The Solomon Islands is considering a security deal with China, which could see forces and military assets stationed in the Solomon Sea.  

While New Zealand is itself part of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, Winston Peters says it's not enough.  

The New Zealand First leader told Andrew Dickens our policy has been too Eurocentric. 

“We’ve tended not to look in the decades at our near neighbourhood, the blue continent so to speak, and see that our self-interest, economic and in terms of security, lay right on our doorstep.” 

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