On the day that China announced that it had successfully fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia was in Suva, the capital of Fiji.
Mr. Albanese was visiting the country on Monday to sign two long-sought security agreements with Fiji’s leader, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. A week earlier, he was smiling and shaking hands with the prime minister of Vanuatu, having finalized a treaty with that island nation. The following day, he was in the Solomon Islands, standing shoulder to shoulder with its new leader and announcing aid for education and policing.
The diplomatic blitz from the Australian leader is just the latest in what’s been a yearslong push to win over the island nations of the Pacific, by way of development assistance and smiling photo ops but also in securing legally binding mutual defense treaties and alliances.
Driving Australia’s efforts is what its foreign minister, Penny Wong, has termed a “permanent contest” for the Pacific region with an increasingly emboldened China.
The region’s 14 sovereign states, many of which are remote and small in size and population but also encompass large swaths of exclusive economic zones in the Pacific Ocean, have been the focal point of heated geopolitical rivalry because of their strategic location. Many of the islands played key roles in the fighting during World War II, and have been the site of consequential weapons testing. They are also positioned near key shipping lanes ferrying international cargo, while the ocean floor holds valuable minerals, drawing massive commercial interest in deep-sea mining.
Here is how the jostling for influence in the region has been playing out:
Australia Redoubling Ties With Pacific Neighbors
Australia historically had close ties to island nations in the South Pacific, having been former colonial administrators to some and a founding member of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s most important multilateral organization.
