Foreign Minister Penny Wong has declared the federal government will double down on efforts to ensure that China does not replace Australia as the Pacific’s top security partner, as the government moves to strike significant new security deals with Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu.

Wong argued the government had achieved unthinkable foreign policy breakthroughs during its time in office as she insisted that middle powers such as Australia must pursue an “active and ambitious” foreign policy in an era of intense geopolitical competition between the United States and China.

“Australia cannot afford to stand still while tectonic plates are shifting around us because in these circumstances – that would mean going backwards,” Wong said in an address to the Australian Institute of International Affairs

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