Vanuatu delays $330M Australia security pact over Chinese funding concerns

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Vanuatu is not yet ready to sign a security and economic treaty with Australia over concerns the bilateral pact could restrict the South Pacific island nation’s ability to secure infrastructure funding from a third country, Vanuatuan Prime Minister Jotham Napat said on Tuesday.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had hoped to sign the 500 million Australian dollar ($330 million) deal during a visit to the capital, Port Vila, on Tuesday. The agreement is one of several that Australia is pursuing to prevent China from gaining security influence in the region.

But hours before flying from Australia, Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. he didn’t expect to sign the landmark pact on Tuesday.

Napat said at a press conference with Albanese after the pair met in Port Vila that some members of the Vanuatuan government “feel it requires more discussions, particularly on some of the specific wordings in the agreement.”

Asked if there were concerns the pact could limit Vanuatu’s ability to get funding from other countries for critical infrastructure, Napat replied: “Yes.”

Albanese said he was confident the agreement would be signed soon.

“The prime minister and I confirmed our commitment to keep working towards the upgrade of our relationship through a new treaty-level agreement. We’ve made good progress towards that goal today,” Albanese said.

Meg Keen, who heads the Australian National University’s Pacific Research Program, said Vanuatu wanted to maintain its close relationship with Australia without excluding China.

Vanuatu has received large loans and aid from China for buildings, wharves and other infrastructure.

“It’s a delicate political navigation that the prime minister of Vanuatu is having to take and he’s got to bring his political supporters along with him if he wants to sustain the deal,” Keen said.

Albanese accompanies Napat on Wednesday to the Pacific Islands Forum on Solomon Islands.

The forum is an annual gathering of 18 member states that includes Australia’s nearest neighbor, Papua New Guinea.

The two nations are expected to announce a new bilateral security deal next week near Papua New Guinea’s 50th anniversary of independence from Australia on Sept. 16.