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Australia and Fiji signed a new bilateral defence alliance on Monday in a second major diplomatic win within a year for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese against Chinese influence in the South Pacific.
Albanese and his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka signed the Ocean of Peace Alliance in Fiji’s capital Suva.
They also signed an economic treaty, the Vuvale Union, under which Australia will invest more than 1 billion Australian dollars (€606 million) in its island neighbour over a decade.
The alliance is Fiji’s first mutual defence treaty. It is Australia’s fourth, following a treaty with the United States and New Zealand signed in 1951 and the bilateral treaty signed with Papua New Guinea last year.
“The Ocean of Peace Alliance introduces a mutual defence obligation and there’s no higher obligation than to come to each other’s aid at a time of need,” Albanese told reporters.
Rabuka did not expect a negative reaction from Beijing to the new treaties.
“I do not expect China to have any severe pushback on either government. And I believe that they will welcome the understanding that is between Australia and Fiji,” Rabuka told reporters.
“It does not threaten Fiji’s relationship with China nor Australia’s relationship with China,” he added.
The signing of the defence treaty comes on the same day that Chinese state media reported a submarine had test-launched a long-range ballistic missile in the South Pacific, a move criticised by Australia.
The missile was tested as part of routine training and carried a dummy warhead, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
China last conducted a missile test in the Pacific two years ago, then firing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who was in Fiji for the signing, did not comment on whether China had attempted to send a message by launching the missile on the same day as the Australia-Fiji security treaty was signed.
“I’ll leave China to speak to its intent,” Wong told reporters.
Wong said Beijing had informed her government in advance of the launch. She spoke before the launch was confirmed.
“Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilising to the region,” she said.
“Australia has been clear that this…proposed test is in the context of a rapid military buildup by China which is lacking in the transparency and reassurance as to intent that the region expects,” she added.
Australia has been attempting to shore up its role as the security partner of choice in the region since 2022 when China struck a secretive security treaty with the Solomon Islands. That deal raised fears of a Chinese naval base being built in the South Pacific.
Albanese will fly to the Solomons on Tuesday to meet with his counterpart Matthew Wale after the two nations agreed to further discussions on a security pact.
Wale said while visiting Australia last month that his new government would review the deal with Beijing.
On Wednesday, Albanese will host Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape and Tongan Prime Minister Fatafehi Fakafānua in the Australian city of Brisbane.
The Australian defence treaty with Papua New Guinea, the country’s nearest neighbour, takes effect on Wednesday.
Australia and Vanuatu last week signed a long-awaited bilateral security and economic treaty that prevents China creating a military base in the island nation.
Albanese signed the so-called Nakamal Agreement with his Vanuatu counterpart, Jotham Napat, in the Australian capital nine months after the Vanuatuan government rejected an earlier draft. Vanuatu had feared the deal would limit its ability to attract infrastructure investment.
China expressed concern last week that the Nakamal Agreement may be targeted at Beijing.
Additional sources • AP