Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travelled to Vanuatu last year but left without signing a 10-year security pact.

China accused of using diplomatic theft to freeze Australia out in Pacific

China is intensifying its efforts to expand its influence in the Pacific and stymie a $500 million treaty deal between Australia and Vanuatu.

  • Matthew Knott

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Since 2010,the proportion of secondary students studying Chinese,Japanese or Indonesian has fallen 25 per cent,to just 3.3 per cent.

Speaking the region’s language:Why fluency is our new front line

With university enrolments in South-East Asian languages in freefall,Labor is investing in the migrant-run weekend schools that have kept these tongues alive.

  • Rob Harris
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Western Australia this week.

Prime Minister’s backdown on gas tax comes at a cost

For too long,gas companies have got away with paying a pittance for what they send overseas. It’s time for the government to act.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

Wong confirms China negotiating on jet fuel supplies

Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed the breakthrough after a day of meetings in Beijing,including one disrupted by Chinese officials attempting to remove the media.

  • Lisa Visentin
Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong.

Wong warns IS families they could be arrested on arrival in Australia

News that a group of four women and nine children have arrived in Damascus and hope to fly to Australia within days has added urgency to the question of how the group should be dealt with.

  • Paul Sakkal andMostafa Rachwani
Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Albanese offers Brunei food for fertiliser,fuel as farmers stop planting

The prime minister has used Australia’s food exports in a bid to boost fuel and fertiliser imports,as up to half of the nation’s grain growers may not plant a crop this season due to unprecedented price rises.

  • Mike Foley
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was travelling to Brunei and Malaysia on Tuesday,meaning he may not attend the summit in person.

Australia joins strait-talking summit with France and UK,and without the US

Australia will join a summit organised by France and Britain,but excluding the US,to organise a coalition to safeguard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Matthew Knott andMichael Koziol
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.

Untold price of war cannot be measured in money

The IMF’s report on the economic impact of the Middle East conflict is chilling – but it ignores the massive cost in human lives and the untold damage to infrastructure.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faces extraordinary headwinds.

Albanese steps in on fuel supply as Coalition floats Russian sanctions pause

The government for the first time acknowledged the potential benefit of Australians working from home and cutting back on fuel consumption.

  • Paul Sakkal
A tanker enters Mumbai after successfully making the journey from the Middle East.

Warning to Australia:Work from home,avoid air travel and cut speed limits to guard against oil shock

As the Albanese government avoids alarm,the International Energy Agency issued a global plea for countries to take some drastic actions on Friday.

  • Paul Sakkal