China Sends 10 Warships Through Japan’s First Island Chain in a Week
Australia and Vanuatu signed a landmark security agreement on June 29 that explicitly blocks either nation from hosting foreign military bases on Vanuatu’s territory, in a move widely seen as a direct rebuff to China’s years-long campaign to establish a strategic presence in the Pacific islands region.
Vanuatu and Australia Sign Historic Security Pact
Prime Minister Jotham Napat and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese signed the Nakamal Agreement in Port Vila, establishing what Albanese called “a new chapter in our security partnership” rooted in mutual respect and shared regional stability. The agreement notably contains no provision permitting foreign military installations on Vanuatu’s archipelago, a clause that diplomats said was deliberately framed to foreclose the possibility of a Chinese base.
“This is about the Pacific family determining the Pacific’s future,” Albanese told reporters at the signing ceremony. Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Napat said the agreement reflected his country’s “independent foreign policy” and its right to choose its own partners without external pressure. The Nakamal Agreement comes after Australian intelligence assessments concluded that Chinese officials had approached Vanuatu multiple times since 2022 about securing basing rights for People’s Liberation Army naval vessels.
China’s Influence Campaign in the Pacific Meets Resistance
Beijing’s Pacific push accelerated sharply after the 2022 Solomon Islands security deal with China raised alarm bells across Canberra and Washington. Chinese police have trained local forces in the Solomon Islands, and a Chinese-funded port expansion in Hanavadu has prompted Australian and US concerns about dual-use civilian-military infrastructure. The Nakamal Agreement is the most concrete pushback yet from a Pacific island nation against Chinese security overtures.
China’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the agreement as “a Cold War mentality” and warned it could destabilize the region. “We oppose the creation of exclusive military blocs in the Pacific,” a ministry spokesperson said in Beijing. China has not publicly acknowledged any formal approach to Vanuatu for basing rights, but Western intelligence sources have described multiple approaches between 2022 and 2025.
US-Japan-Philippines Triangle and the South China Sea Flashpoints
The Vanuatu announcement coincided with escalating confrontations in the South China Sea, where Philippine vessels at Sabina Shoal and Scarborough Shoal have faced aggressive Chinese water cannon use and ramming incidents in recent weeks. The US reaffirmed its mutual defense commitments with the Philippines, invoking Article 5 for Philippine coast guard vessels for the first time under the expanded 2024 defense treaty.
Japan and the Philippines formalized their Reciprocal Access Agreement in Manila in February, enabling joint military exercises and port calls. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are expanding their presence across the first island chain, with defense officials in Tokyo describing the Pacific architecture as “a rules-based order that must not be eroded by coercion.” Vietnam and Malaysia simultaneously pressed for a South China Sea code of conduct that would not apply to their own disputed claims, complicating ASEAN unity.
Australia has signaled it will station defense attachés in Vanuatu under the Nakamal framework, and the US has been consulted on the agreement’s design, according to Australian defense officials. The combined effect of the Vanuatu pact, the expanded US-Philippines treaty, and Japan’s deepening Pacific engagement marks the most consequential realignment of regional security architecture since the Cold War ended.
