Before the end of 2023, Vanuatu will bring a security agreement with Australia to its parliament after neighboring Papua New Guinea postponed signing another one due to worries about China in the region.
Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau stated that a security agreement struck with Australia in December 2022 was still being looked at during a visit by Defence Minister Richard Marles on Tuesday.
Mr. Kalsakau stated in the nation’s capital Port Vila that Vanuatu’s National Security Council was “going through the text” and that the Council of Ministers would then review it.
“It will be put before Parliament for ratification before the end of this year,” he declared.
Tuesday’s statement by Mr. Marles that “the Pacific’s security has to come from the Pacific family itself” was “a profoundly important principle” and that Australia was pleased with the work being made on the Vanuatu security accord.
Coordination between the military, police, and cyber security was anticipated as part of the security arrangement.
Politicians in Vanuatu who support relations with China have expressed concern about the agreement.
The State Department reports that the United States intends to establish an embassy in Vanuatu as part of Washington’s most recent effort to increase its diplomatic presence in the Pacific in an effort to offset China’s expanding influence.
A proposed security agreement between Papua New Guinea and Australia has been postponed while the country weighs the implications for its sovereignty.
An improved Australian security treaty, according to PNG Prime Minister James Marape, is still “a work in progress.”
A defence cooperation deal PNG inked with the US last month sparked some local political backlash due to worries that PNG would become involved in the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China.
China, a significant infrastructure lender that last year signed a security agreement with Solomon Islands, and the United States, which has pledged to reopen embassies that have been closed since the Cold War, are courting the nations of the Pacific Islands.
Concerns over Beijing’s naval aspirations in a region that was crucial to the outcome of World War II and occupies important sea lanes have been voiced by Washington and its allies.
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