An Australian academic is calling for Australia to form partnership arrangements with four small Pacific states that he sees as facing existential threats.
The head of the Australian National University's Department of Strategic and Defence Studies, Professor John Blaxland, says he is taking his inspiration partly from New Zealand's relationship with Niue and the Cook Islands.
He says he thinks Kiribati, Tonga, Tuvalu and Nauru would benefit from such a partnership arrangement.
It is an idea that has been raised - and scotched - before but Professor Blaxland told Don Wiseman such are the threats small Pacific nations are now facing, coupled with the unstable geopolitical state of the region, that the metropolitan powers need to take a new approach.
Australia Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Photo: AFP
