Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is an island country in Melanesia, located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 540 km (340 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.
The politics of Vanuatu take place within the framework of a constitutional democracy. The constitution provides for a representative parliamentary system. The head of the Republic is an elected President. The Prime Minister of Vanuatu is the head of government.
Vanuatu maintains diplomatic relations with many countries, and it has a small network of diplomatic missions. Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, the People's Republic of China, South Korea and the United Kingdom maintain embassies, High Commissions, or missions in Port Vila. The British High Commission maintained a continued presence for almost a century, though closed from 2005 until reopening in 2019.
Edward Nipake Natapei Tuta Fanua`araki was a Vanuatuan politician. He was the prime minister of Vanuatu on two occasions, and was previously the minister of Foreign Affairs briefly in 1991, the acting president of Vanuatu from 2 March 1999 to 24 March 1999 and the deputy prime minister. He was the president of the Vanua'aku Pati, a socialist, Anglophone political party.
Moana Carcasses Kalosil is a Vanuatuan politician. He was Prime Minister of Vanuatu from March 2013 to May 2014. He was the first naturalized citizen of Vanuatu to become the country's prime minister.
Meltek Sato Kilman Livtuvanu is a Vanuatuan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Vanuatu on four previous occasions, most recently from 4 September to 6 October 2023. he was previously prime minister from December 2010 to April 2011, from May to June 2011 and June 2015 to February 2016, though his premiership was subsequently annulled by a court of law.
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) unites the three main political independence movements seeking independence for Western New Guinea from Indonesia under a single umbrella organisation. The ULMWP was formed on 7 December 2014 in Vanuatu uniting the Federal Republic of West Papua (NRFPB), the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) and the National Parliament of West Papua (NPWP).
Harold William "Joe" Bauer was a United States Marine Corps air group commander, fighter pilot and flying ace credited with destroying 11 Japanese aircraft during World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions as a fighter squadron commander during the crucial struggle for the control of the Solomon Islands at the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501) is a training squadron in the United States Marine Corps, consisting of 27 F-35B Lightning II aircraft and serves as the Fleet Replacement Squadron. Known as the "Warlords," the squadron is based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina and falls administratively under Marine Aircraft Group 31 and the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. The squadron has assumed the lineage of VMFA-451 which was originally known as the "Blue Devils" and saw action during World War II and Operation Desert Storm. They were decommissioned on 31 January 1997.
The Vanuatu Police Force is the national law enforcement of Vanuatu. The VPF is headquartered in Port Vila and has two specialised arms: a small para-military force, the Vanuatu Mobile Force, and a maritime force, the Vanuatu Police Maritime Wing.
Ralph John Regenvanu is a Ni-Vanuatu anthropologist, artist and politician. He has been a Member of Parliament since September 2008, was a member of Cabinet for most of the period from December 2010 to January 2012 and then from March 2013 to June 2015, and was the Director of the Vanuatu National Cultural Council from 1995 until December 2010.
Love Patrol is a ni-Vanuatu television series. It is the first ever locally produced television series in Vanuatu. Produced by Wan Smolbag Theatre with financial assistance from AusAID, NZAID and the Asian Development Bank, it is a soap opera with a serious message, intended primarily to educate viewers on the topic of AIDS. It also tackles "youth unemployment, police brutality and the hypocrisy of keeping youth uninformed about sex". UNAIDS reported that it explores "the growing issues of high rates of STIs among young people, high teenage pregnancy, lack of discourse on sex and risk taking behaviours in [...] Pacific communities". It has been described as an "edutainment" series.
The Cabinet of Vanuatu is the cabinet of the government of the Republic of Vanuatu.
The Vanuatu passport is an international travel document issued to Vanuatu citizens.
Vanuatu competed at the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from 4 to 18 July 2015. Vanuatu listed 161 competitors as of 4 July 2015.
RVS Tukoro is a Pacific Forum patrol boat that performs fishery protection, search and rescue and sovereignty patrols for Vanuatu. Tukoro is one of twenty-two small patrol vessels Australia designed and built for smaller fellow members of the Pacific Forum, after the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea extended control of a 200-kilometre (110 nmi) exclusive economic zone for all maritime nations.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Management is a cabinet ministry of the government of Vanuatu responsible for overseeing the nation's public finances.
On 21–23 July 2022 an election was held indirectly to elect the president of Vanuatu.
Nikenike Vurobaravu is a Vanuatuan diplomat and politician who has served as President of Vanuatu since 23 July 2022. Previously having been employed in numerous diplomatic and government positions, including as the first resident High Commissioner to Fiji, he was elected as president during the eighth round of the 2022 Vanuatuan presidential election in July 2022. He is a member of the Vanua'aku Pati (VP) political party.
RVS Takuare is a Guardian class patrol boat in service with the Vanuatu Police Maritime Wing. She was given to Vanuatu by Australia as part of the Australian government's Pacific Maritime Security Program on 30 July 2021. Her predecessor, the RVS Tukoro, was the second vessel of the first iteration of the Pacific Patrol Boat Program, and served in the same role from 1987 to 2021. The Takuare is currently the only naval or law enforcement vessel operated by the Pacific Island nation.
