Anthony Albanese is off to Fiji to sign a landmark treaty, as Australia and China face off in a diplomatic fight for influence in the Indo-Pacific.
The prime minister arrives in Suva on Sunday and is expected to sign the Vuvale Union agreement with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka on Monday.
He will then push on to the Solomon Islands on Tuesday to progress negotiations on a new treaty with Honiara, as part of a three-day Pacific tour.
The whirlwind round of diplomacy doesn’t stop there either, with Mr Albanese to meet Narendra Modi in Melbourne later in the week.
The Indian prime minister will spend three days Down Under from Wednesday for the annual leaders’ summit between the two nations.
Mr Albanese will meanwhile become the first foreign leader to participate in Solomon Islands’ Independence Day celebrations.
His message will be that Australia is a nation the Pacific can rely on.
Newly-elected Solomons Prime Minister Matthew Wale made Australia his first international trip as leader during a visit to Canberra in June.
He is also the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum and flagged that he would review his nation’s controversial policing deal with China, signed in 2022.
Mr Wales has also called for a Pacific-wide security deal, which Australia has said it is open to pursuing.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who will also take part in the Pacific trip, has previously described Australia as in a “state of permanent contest in the Pacific”.
Engaged in a diplomatic “knife fight” with China for regional influence, the Albanese government has since inked a number of security and economic deals with Pacific Island nations.
The latest among them is the breakthrough $500 million Nakamal Agreement signed with Vanuatu, which rules out the use of its territory for foreign military bases.
The deal previously fell through last September, after Port Vila raised concerns its sovereignty would be undermined through Australia’s push for a veto over major foreign investment in critical infrastructure.
Canberra has signed a historic mutual defence pact with Papua New Guinea called the Pukpuk Treaty, and the world-leading Falepili Union with Tuvalu, which allows the population to resettle in Australia.
Mr Albanese’s visit would be significant and he had built “momentum” with the region’s leaders, Lowy’s Pacific Program director Oliver Nobetau said.
“Albanese, despite all the domestic pressures, sees that this is a permanent contest, and he’s willing to make those strides and those commitments and build those relationships out in the Pacific,” he told AAP.
“Permanent contest, it is a good framing because it doesn’t allow for anyone to take things for granted as to where the goodwill of the relationships are.”
Under the Nakamal Agreement, both Australia and Vanuatu committed to support dialogue addressing the dark historical practice of blackbirding, where thousands of Pacific Islanders were forced to work and live under harsh conditions on Queensland plantations.
They were taken from countries across the region, including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Fiji.
Mr Nobetau said unlike China, Australia faced the “hurdle” of its colonial past and image in the region.
“When we saw the mention of blackbirding … that was such a significant step in looking at how mature these relationships can get,” he said.
Before departing for Fiji, Mr Albanese will address the annual NSW Labor conference in Sydney on Sunday morning.
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