New Zealand Signals Interest in Australia-Fiji Defence Pact After Chinese Missile Test

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaks during a press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand on March 25, 2025. Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesNew Zealand says it will look to join Australia and Fiji’s new defence pact following Beijing’s ballistic missile test in the region.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on July 9 that he would engage both countries about joining the “Ocean of Peace Alliance.”“New Zealand and Australia share a close bond, with a military alliance that continues to go from strength to strength, and we also have a strong and enduring relationship with Fiji,” he said in a statement.“We already work with both countries on how we can develop a safer region for all, so engaging with them on this alliance is logical.”The Australia-Fiji security pact—called the Vuvale Union—is similar to the one struck in October last year with Papua New Guinea—the Pukpuk Treaty—and commits both parties to come to the aid of the other in the event of an attack.At present, Australia maintains mutual defence pacts only with New Zealand, the United States, and now the two Pacific nations.Yet just hours after the official signing, reports emerged that a People’s Liberation Army Navy submarine test-fired a nuclear-capable long-range intercontinental ballistic missile containing a dummy warhead about 6,300 kilometres across the Pacific.The missile flew through the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, the U.S. territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, eventually landing south-east of Nauru.The test drew condemnation from Pacific nations including the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand.Even newly-elected Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale, who is chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, and was open to continuing Chinese investment in his country, said the launch was “not something a friend does” and that he would lodge a “strong protest.”“In many ways the missile test is further evidence for the need for a regional platform so that the region can speak as one,” he said, alluding to a future South Pacific-wide defence pact.“Not all the countries in the Pacific are not all on the same level of strength and may not want to speak up when things like this happen, but a regional platform will allow cover and allow for much greater sharing of intelligence and information.”According to Foreign Minister Penny Wong Australia views itself in a “permanent contest” for the Pacific region with an increasingly aggressive China, and has recently stepped up efforts to win over the region’s 14 nations with offers of aid and practical support such as the Pacific Policing Initiative.Australia recently secured the $500 million Nakamal Agreement with Vanuatu, which rules out the use of its territory for foreign military bases, after a false start last September over concerns in Port Vila that the agreement may lead to Beijing being unable to invest in the island’s infrastructure.Canberra has also signed the Falepili Union with Tuvalu, which allows the population to resettle in Australia amid climate change and rising sea level concerns.