But some island nations are worried the regional police initiatives might further escalate rivalries between US and China
By Jayvee Vallejera
The Pacific Ocean covers about 69 million square miles of open water, yet only Australia and New Zealand—two of the 18 member-countries of the Pacific Islands Forum that straddle this vast area—have armies or coast guards that keep watch over their sliver of ocean.
The United States lends its forces and technical expertise to the Forum’s new associate members, Guam and American Samoa, while also extending the reach of its Coast Guard to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.
Japan keeps watch over its own waters. The Philippines is severely undermanned, has limited enforcement capabilities and lacks resources. Japan and the Philippines are not members of the Forum.
That pretty much leaves a large part of the Pacific Ocean unwatched and unmonitored, making it a maritime Wild Wild West that has gained the reputation of a “drug highway” through which drugs and other illegal substances are trafficked from Asia and South America.
The area’s porous maritime borders are also a hotbed for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, or IUU fishing, and the ocean is a prime highway for human trafficking and other transnational crimes, while gang violence is also on the upswing in some island nations.
And because the Pacific Ocean covers such a vast area and faces lucrative markets such as the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, it has become a prime route for drug and human traffickers and others who want to escape the prying eyes of law enforcement.
Now comes a plan to solve this problem: a pan-Pacific police force that will beef up peace and security throughout the Pacific and enhance the policing work of each Pacific country. Called the Pacific Policing Initiative, it will be developed with the help of Australia, which has committed an initial funding of about $272 million (AU$400 million).
The plan is to create four regional police training centers, called Centers of Excellence, in Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Fiji. These will be used to enhance policing capabilities through specialist training and operational support for Pacific police personnel.
A separate multinational crisis reaction force composed of about 200 officers from different Pacific island nations will function like the U.S. National Guard, with a pool of trained officers that could be tapped to handle local emergencies and disasters. The cadre will be based in Brisbane, Australia, at what will be called the PPI Policing Development and Coordination Hub.
Australia’s contribution will include costs to build the policing Centers of Excellence in the region. Pacific police are now finalizing a PPI design to make sure this plan will be Pacific-centric—by the Pacific and for the Pacific—and will not just benefit regional heavyweights like Australia and New Zealand.
Forum leaders and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese endorsed the plan at the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga in August. The initial funding will be disbursed over five years.
“The security of the Pacific is the shared responsibility of the Pacific region, and this initiative benefits each of our nations,” Albanese said in August. “This is a Pacific-led, Australia-backed initiative, harnessing our collective strengths. We are stronger together.”
Australia has historically been the region's go-to security partner, leading peacekeeping missions in the Solomon Islands and providing training in Nauru, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Talks about an integrated regional policing capability were first held at the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police meeting in 2023.
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. supports the policing plan, saying this will not only help his government address domestic problems such as drugs, human trafficking and IUU fishing, but will also put the brakes on China’s security role in the region. Whipps has been vocal about China’s attempt to force Palau to break ties with Taiwan.
“And so we need to continue to focus and build those internal capacities so that we can combat crime and the challenges we face,” Whipps said.
China's increasing effort to build its sphere of influence in the Pacific is seen as an attempt to supplant Australia as the region’s primary security partner. It has mainly focused on policing, such as providing martial arts training to Pacific police forces and donating Chinese-made vehicles.
In the Solomon Islands, which has inked a security pact with Beijing, a small group of Chinese police officers train local police officers in shooting and how to handle riots.
The Pacific News Service Agency reported that new police vehicles emblazoned with red "China Aid" stickers are spotted roaming Honiara, the Solomons’ capital.
Beijing has also reportedly sent teams of police advisers to Kiribati earlier this year, PacNews reported. Chinese police teams had previously entered Pacific countries such as Fiji.
Writing for the National Bureau of Asian Research earlier this year, analyst Peter Connolly said China's diplomatic push in the region has typically focused on police since most Pacific island nations do not have a military.
“This allowed China to plug the gap—and curry diplomatic favor—when Pacific nations were beset by civil unrest and climate-related crises,” Connolly said, as reported by PacNews. “In a state with no military, police advisers are often the only means for delivering security statecraft.”
The PPI is supported by Tonga’s Police Commissioner Shane McLennan, Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko and Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
“Bringing this initiative to the region will be a godsend,” Rabuka said during the August meeting in Tonga. “Our region faces a lot of problems, and it is our responsibility to develop the Pacific Policing Initiative.”
It’s not as if there has been no dissent, though. China’s allies in the Pacific, such as the Solomon Islands, have voiced unease and suspicion over the plan, fearing it might worsen regional rivalries. Some are worried that the plan might be perceived as anti-China and could provoke accusations that Pacific nations are siding with the United States in its ongoing geopolitical conflict with China.
Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Charlot Salwai told fellow Pacific leaders in Tonga,
“We need to make sure that this [policing initiative] is framed to fit our purposes and not developed to suit the geostrategic interests and geostrategic denial security postures of our big partners.”
This new pan-Pacific policing plan comes even as the United States and other Pacific island states have created a regional initiative to boost maritime patrolling and curb criminal activities in the region. Called the Aumoana Regional Law Enforcement Initiative, or ARLEI, it was unveiled at the first U.S.-Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Dialogue in Tonga earlier this month.
According to the U.S. State Department, the initiative will provide training and support to help the Pacific island governments “bolster law enforcement response to illicit maritime activities.”
The program seeks to beef up regional efforts to curb drug smuggling, human and wildlife trafficking, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, among other criminal activities.
“Under ARLEI, the United States will continue the tradition of supporting the needs of our Pacific partners by ensuring that solutions are ‘by the Pacific, for the Pacific’ and in coordination with our friends and allies in the region,” the State Department said.
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