Pacific Pact Shields Vanuatu from Chinese Military Base Bid

Vanuatu and Australia signed a pact aimed at preventing China from building a military base in Vanuatu, with Australia offering about 500 million AUD in development aid over a decade. Officials say the Namele Agreement with China is a development cooperation deal, not a security pact, and they plan to publish more details later. China has not publicly commented, and the agreement's contents follow a previous draft rejection and are tied to broader disaster-response cooperation in the region.