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Australia will help to fund the development of two datacenters in the Pacific island nation Vanuatu, an example of tech infrastructure becoming an important diplomatic consideration.

Vanuatu is around 2,000 kilometers from Australia’s east coast. The country is home to around 320,000 people, and its GDP is just over $1 billion.

Despite Vanuatu’s small size, Australia has courted the nation and others in the Pacific because China is doing likewise. The Middle Kingdom’s diplomacy often includes proposals to create facilities that its navy could use, sweetened by offers to build submarine cables or mobile networks.

Australia does not want China gaining access to Pacific ports, or influence in the region. Japan and the USA support that policy and when Chinese entities expressed an interest in acquiring the biggest mobile carrier in the Pacific – Digicel – helped to fund a takeover by Australian carrier Telstra. Once Telstra took control of Digicel, it ripped out Huawei gear over fears it could enable espionage.

In 2022, Australia and Vanuatu negotiated a Bilateral Security-Agreement that kept the Pacific nation in Australia’s sphere of influence. Earlier this year, Vanuatu’s new prime minister Jotham Napat scrapped the 2022 deal and sought another.

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