Vanuatu has declared it will sign a new policing agreement with China as the landmark Nakamal pact between Australia and the Pacific Island nation hangs in the balance.
Vanuatu's Police Minister Andrew Napuat met with China's Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong in Beijing last Friday, less than two weeks after Anthony Albanese departed Port Vila with the $500 million Nakamal Agreement left unsigned.
Beijing has already stepped up its police equipment donations to Vanuatu.
Meanwhile, its police training teams have been playing an increasingly visible role, with Chinese officers recently making their first visit to the island of Malekula.
Mr Napat told media in Vanuatu that China had now agreed to hand over another 20 police motorcycles, 20 drones and other equipment. That includes INTERPOL systems used by police to communicate internationally.
Vanuatu media reported that the total equipment donation was worth about $700,000 — a fraction of the amount Australia gives to Vanuatu for security assistance — but the Police Minister said China was helping Vanuatu deal with its key security priorities.
It was not the "full militarisation of its forces" but "rather on security issues relating to climate change, transnational crime, cybercrime, traffic management, and general policing duties and functions".
"Vanuatu has already established Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] and Cooperation Agreements on policing with Australia, New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom [UK], and PNG, while China is the only country with which we still need to formalise a MoU," he said.
"Our two governments wish to formalise a Police MoU similar to existing MoUs … to better coordinate and manage different areas of partnership in the policing sector with all of our partners."
In a statement issued late last week China said the Wang Xiaohong and Andrew Napuat had agreed to "strengthen exchanges at all levels, work together to enhance their law enforcement capabilities and strengthen cooperation in cracking down on transnational crimes such as fugitive repatriation and asset recovery, so as to advance the China-Vanuatu comprehensive strategic partnership".
The announcement is likely to cause consternation in Canberra.
It has been working on a range of agreements designed to bolster Australia's strategic position in the Pacific and stop China from making further inroads into the policing and security sectors in the region.
Vanuatu insists its exercising sovereignty
Australia has repeatedly said that China should play no role in regional security, and that providing Pacific security and policing assistance should be left to the "Pacific family".
But Mr Napuat insisted that there was no connection between the Nakamal agreement and the policing agreement being contemplated with China.
"These [policing] MoUs are not the same as the Nakamal Security Agreement currently being negotiated between Vanuatu and Australia," he said.
"Overseas media has exaggerated these discussions with misrepresentations, giving wrong impressions of our relationship with our partners on topics of security and policing, which have very specific meanings in Vanuatu's context."
Vanuatu's Prime Minister Jotham Napat suggested earlier this month that two countries hadn't yet signed the Nakamal Agreement because some of his ministers had concerns around clauses designed to limit external investment in his country's critical infrastructure.
But Vanuatu has furiously denied that China has been pressing it not to sign the Nakamal Agreement. Government spokesperson Kiery Manassah wrote earlier this week that the suggestion was "absurd" and "an insult to the collective wisdom of Vanuatu leaders".
The ABC has asked multiple sources in Vanuatu whether this assessment is true.
While one diplomat has insisted China had been agitating against the agreement, other officials and sources on the ground say they can see no evidence that Beijing has been actively trying to sink the pact.
Mr Napuat said that while his country was keen to get security and policing help from all its international partners, it was not a "proxy in a geopolitical game" and that "Vanuatu's national interest must come first".
"Vanuatu will continue to exercise its sovereignty on important matters, and we expect our partners to respect this," he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the ABC that Australia was "Vanuatu's largest economic, development, security and humanitarian partner" and that it was "aware China continues to have a small police presence in Vanuatu".
"When it comes to security, our view is well known — that Pacific security needs are the responsibility of the Pacific, as agreed by Pacific leaders," they said.
Several other Pacific Ministers and senior officials also travelled to China last week to join the Global Public Security Cooperation Forum" in the city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu.
Solomon Islands Police Minister Jimson Tanangada used the Forum to heap praise on Beijing's move to expand police training and support in the country.
"Solomon Islands and China have a very special relationship, and in terms of our security cooperation, we value it as a very special one, because it is established at a very critical moment for Solomon Islands," he said.
"So, while that security cooperation between China and Solomon Islands primarily aims to enhance our domestic security, I believe it's also important in also contributing to regional security and also global [security]."
