South Korea’s navy has come a long way since it first showed up at RIMPAC in 1990 with two frigates and a dream. OceaniaCasting a netDays after returning from his trip to Washington, Solomon Islands’ new prime minister, Matthew Wale, signed what’s called a ‘shiprider agreement’ with the US in Honiara. In fact, with the addition of Solomon Islands, the US has run out of independent Pacific states to broker them with. This doesn’t appear to be within the scope of the deal just inked with Solomon Islands. The US can provide great-power resources against practical Pacific security problems in ways other partners such as Australia and New Zealand simply cannot match.