---
title: "Australia and Vanuatu Sign a Pacific Pact That Bars Foreign Military Bases"
description: "Australia and Vanuatu signed a sweeping security and economic partnership in Canberra on Sunday that commits the Pacific island nation to barring foreign military bases on its territory — a provision widely read against the backdrop of China's growing influence in the region."
category: "World"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/world
author: "Naomi Fields"
published: 2026-06-29T10:48:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-29T10:48:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/australia-and-vanuatu-sign-a-pacific-pact-that-bars-foreign-military-bases
tags: ["Australia", "Vanuatu", "Pacific", "China", "security", "foreign policy", "geopolitics"]
---
# Australia and Vanuatu Sign a Pacific Pact That Bars Foreign Military Bases

Australia and Vanuatu signed a sweeping security and economic partnership in Canberra on Sunday that commits the Pacific island nation to barring foreign military bases on its territory — a provision widely read against the backdrop of China's growing influence in the region.

A new agreement between Australia and a small Pacific neighbor carries an outsized geopolitical message: no foreign military bases, in a region the world's powers are increasingly contesting.

## A deal named for a place of gathering

The pact, called the Nakamal Agreement after the traditional Vanuatu meeting place, was signed at Parliament House in Canberra on June 29 by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Vanuatu Prime Minister Jotham Napat, [Al Jazeera reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/29/australia-and-vanuatu-sign-deal-to-block-foreign-military-bases). The name signals that the two governments cast themselves as negotiating as equals. The agreement spans security, policing, infrastructure, disaster response and economic development — among the broadest Australia has reached with a Pacific island country in years.

## What the base clause says

The headline provision commits Vanuatu to prohibiting foreign military bases and the militarization of critical infrastructure on its soil. Separately, Vanuatu agreed to consult Australia before accepting major outside investment in critical infrastructure — though, Australian officials stressed, Canberra holds no veto over such decisions. Albanese described the clause as providing "certainty" that there will be no foreign military base in a nation that lies roughly 1,750 kilometers east of Queensland.

## Security, policing and aid

Under the deal, Australia is designated Vanuatu's "longstanding primary policing partner," with commitments to joint training, maritime patrols, cybersecurity and intelligence sharing. Vanuatu also agreed to consult Australia, New Zealand or France first in the event of a major natural disaster. The agreement carries financial weight as well: a draft reported before the signing proposed roughly 500 million Australian dollars in aid and investment over a decade, Al Jazeera noted, though Canberra said the final figure would be confirmed later this year. For Vanuatu, a nation of a few hundred thousand people with limited fiscal capacity, that support is significant.

## The China question

Neither government named China in its public remarks, but the backdrop is hard to miss. Beijing has financed ports and roads in Vanuatu through its Belt and Road Initiative and signed a policing cooperation deal with the country in 2023 — moves watched closely by Canberra and Wellington. China's foreign ministry, responding to the Nakamal Agreement, suggested the deal appeared to "target" an outside party without naming itself; Australian officials rejected that framing, calling the pact a bilateral matter rooted in shared interests.

The sensitivity is not unique to Vanuatu. After Beijing signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in 2022 that alarmed Australia and the United States, Canberra launched a wave of diplomacy across Melanesia. The Nakamal Agreement reads as part of that effort to lock in ties before others fill the space.

## What it means for the Pacific

For Australia, the deal offers a concrete assurance that Vanuatu will not host a foreign military power. For Vanuatu, it brings resources and an explicit acknowledgment of sovereignty — Canberra gains consultation, not control. Whether it holds as China keeps expanding its economic reach is an open question: Vanuatu has long pursued a multi-vector foreign policy, keeping ties with Beijing while deepening security cooperation with Australia. The agreement does not force a choice — but it sets clearer expectations about what the relationship with Canberra means in practice.

## Sources

- [Australia and Vanuatu sign deal to block foreign military bases](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/29/australia-and-vanuatu-sign-deal-to-block-foreign-military-bases)