non-aligned; emphasises the China-exclusion subtext and Vanuatu's residual sovereignty anxieties
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Al Jazeera · Qatar · Australia and Vanuatu sign the Nakamal Agreement, sealing a Pacific base-exclusion pact
Reports the Canberra signing and frames it explicitly as blocking China from building a military base in the Pacific. Notes that Vanuatu's cabinet nearly scuttled the deal in September 2025 over sovereignty concerns, and that Canberra agreed to revisions before the current text was finalised.
“Australia and Vanuatu have signed a landmark security deal preventing any foreign military base on the Pacific island, in an agreement long seen as aimed at keeping China out.”