On Earth in international waters, when a ship is in distress, ships which hear the distress call, are expected to offer assistance even if they are of a different nation than the ship in distress.  

You would have a similar situation with deep space starbases which are far from any colonized world.  The only quick help that a Star Base commander could depend on are from other deep starbases in the area whether or not they belong to the same civilization.   The commanders in their isolation would be more conserned with the welfare of their crew above the petty squabbles of their civlisation so far away.

I think there should be something to address this.  Either some tech to assist other deep starbases (perhaps a module).  This technology would benefit not only our starbase (if there are starbases of another civ in the area) its presence would help relations between the civilizations concerned.

There are other examples of this:

When a world of a nearby civilization is conquered.  If you have a world near that which has been conquered, and the civilian ships are far from worlds of their own civilization, accepting refugees or offering protection to those ships.  Your civilization could receive gifts in exchange for this service to a neighbour.