Australia, Vanuatu sign deal barring foreign military base on Pacific island

CANBERRA: Australia and Vanuatu signed a sweeping economic and security agreement on Monday that bars any foreign military base on the Pacific island.

Vanuatu is at the centre of strategic rivalry between China and US allies in the South Pacific, and Australia has expressed concern that Beijing is seeking a permanent security presence in the region.

The agreement was signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Vanuatu counterpart Jotham Napat in Canberra.

It commits Australia to greater economic support for Vanuatu, whose largest external creditor is China, and stops a foreign military power establishing a base there.

“What this does do is to provide certainty for Australia that there will be no foreign military base,” Albanese told reporters.

China’s navy has made repeated port calls to Vanuatu.

Beijing also funded the expansion of a wharf in Luganville, once the largest US military base in the South Pacific, fuelling concern in Canberra and Washington that China wanted a navy base.

China and Vanuatu previously said the wharf was for cruise ships.

The Nakamal agreement also commits Vanuatu to rejecting the militarisation of infrastructure, Napat told reporters at a news conference after the signing.