VANUATU – A Chinese embassy spokesman has said the idea that China is planning to establish a military base in Vanuatu is “ridiculous”.

Australia’s Fairfax Media reported on Tuesday that China was eyeing a base in the Pacific nation. “That’s impossible,” said Chen Ke, a spokesman for the ambassador to Vanuatu.

A senior Vanuatu government adviser concurred: “That conversation was never on the table.”

The adviser claimed detailed knowledge of relevant matters in two key ministries and insisted that the topic was never even hinted at.

They went on to suggest that the source of the Sydney Morning Herald story was not the government of Vanuatu.

The newspaper reported there had been informal discussions between China and Vanuatu, but no formal offer, about a military buildup.

The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, told the ABC on Tuesday morning she remained “confident that Australia is Vanuatu’s strategic partner of choice”.

“It is a fact that China is engaging in developing infrastructure and investment activity in places around the world, but to date there is only one military base that China has built, and that’s in Djibouti in northern Africa,” she said.

“We must remember that Vanuatu is a sovereign nation and its foreign and defence relations are a matter for Vanuatu.”

Chen insisted that China’s naval presence in the Pacific islands was humanitarian in nature.

Chen said the next scheduled Chinese naval visit to Vanuatu would be in September, when the full-service Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark will carry out on a humanitarian visit.

The ship contains equipment and facilities that are otherwise unavailable in Vanuatu, including a CT scanner and advanced surgical facilities.

The head of the national security college at the Australian National University, Prof Rory Medcalf, said any foreign power establishing a foothold in the South Pacific would represent “a long-term failure of Australian policy”.

Medcalf said a Chinese military base on Vanuatu would pose significant problems for Australian interests.

“I don’t think China would be doing this specifically or solely to harm Australian interests, but there would be harm to Australian interests as a major side-effect of this presence,” he said.

“Vanuatu would be useful for China if it got itself in a strategic confrontation with the US – to be able to outflank the US and the Japanese.

“It would allow them to have some forces positioned behind the US base in Guam and would allow China to monitor and patrol the South Pacific Ocean.”

Medcalf said China was increasingly seeking to exert influence in the South Pacific. He said establishing a military presence could be a sort of payoff for development aid.

Analyst Charles Edel, a senior fellow at the University of Sydney’s US studies centre, is concerned about the potential that China has been engaging in “debt-trap diplomacy”.

“We’ve seen variations on this in other parts of the world China does not import energy from the South Pacific, which begs the question why are they there.

“There are a number of other reasons, but one of them is clearly a strategic play, given the US bases in the Pacific. It increases the risks and challenges to the US.

- Guardian