Australia has cemented closer security ties with Vanuatu as the strategically located Pacific nation assures a visiting bi-partisan delegation led by Foreign Minister Penny Wong that it isn't discussing a similar deal with China.
Following high-level talks on Monday, Vanuatu described Australia as a "core" security partner.
The two nations are now working towards an enhanced security dialogue, having signed a bilateral security agreement during the bipartisan delegation's meeting with Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau.
That's expected to include further military, policing and cyber security co-operation.
"We have an interest in a Pacific which is stronger economically, in which sovereign choices can be made, in which health and prosperity can be improved," Senator Wong said.
"Australia has an ethical interest in that; we have a regional interest in that as a member of the Pacific family."
Earlier this year China struck a security pact with Solomon Islands, but Vanuatu's newly elected government insists his nation hasn't had similar discussions with Beijing.
"We have not established any security agreement. We have not even discussed any matter in relation to security," Foreign Minister Jotham Napat said.
On Tuesday frontbenchers from both sides of federal politics will witness the formal handover ceremony for a newly refurbished wharf in Port Vila capable of berthing Australian naval vessels.
Redevelopment of the Mala Base Wharf began under the previous Coalition government's Pacific step-up program, and will now accommodate Vanuatu's Australian donated Guardian-class patrol boat as well as visiting naval vessels.
Later this week the bi-partisan delegation, which includes shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham, Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy and his Opposition counterpart Michael McCormack, will fly to the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.
Earlier this year China sought unsuccessfully to clinch a region-wide deal with almost a dozen Pacific islands, covering policing, security and data communications cooperation.
