Australia's diplomatic blitz across the Pacific
Australia is aggressively expanding its diplomatic and security footprint in the Pacific to counter China's growing influence. Recent initiatives include new defense pacts with Fiji and increased engagement with the Solomon Islands and other island nations.
Why it matters
The shift in Australian foreign policy reflects heightened geopolitical competition between Western powers and China for strategic dominance in the South Pacific.
Australia has been on an extraordinary diplomatic frenzy across the Pacific over the past year - and especially over the past month - as the result of mounting concerns over China's growing interest in the region.
Both Australia and New Zealand are more and more concerned that Beijing has military ambitions for the South Pacific and holds few qualms about moving into the region, as evidenced by its launch of a ballistic missile into the waters off Tuvalu earlier this month.
That missile launch came on the same day - almost certainly a coincidence - that Australia and Fiji forged the Ocean of Peace Alliance, a new defence pact, and the Vuvale Union security and development pact, backed by Australian government spending of more than $1 billion over a decade.
Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Sitiveni Rabuka of Fiji hailed the agreements.
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