The JHoPS meeting involved the AFP, ADF and ABF, and the heads of corresponding departments across the region. Photo: Australian Department of Defence.
From 18-20 March, the heads of military, law enforcement, customs and immigration departments from across the Pacific gathered in Papua New Guinea for the seventh Joint Heads of Pacific Security (JHoPS) meeting.
The forum was established in 2019 and includes 24 Pacific island jurisdictions, seven regional observer organisations and two allied observer nations with strong interests in the Pacific, namely Japan and the United States.
The meeting, held annually, provides an opportunity for leaders in regional security to network, connect and prompt responses to regional security issues.
“I thank our friends and hosts, Papua New Guinea, for their leadership of the forum this year, which provides a key opportunity to advance practical, Pacific-led security cooperation,” Commander 1st (Australian) Division, Major General Ash Collingburn AM DSM, said.
“It is in our shared interest to work together with increasing efficiency, and develop more rapid and capable frameworks in support of a secure and resilient region.”
This year’s meeting bore the theme ”Align and collaborate to advance our collective security’‘. Leaders considered novel ways to bring about collective action and cooperation in operational capacities.
Members were asked to consider drafting plans for a Regional Operations Deployment Framework, carry out practical planning exercises focused on inter-agency and inter-regional collaboration, and share information on subjects such as maritime law enforcement.
“The region faces a range of multidimensional security challenges, both traditional and non-traditional, which require collaborative solutions based on common understanding,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said.
“The AFP will continue to invest in initiatives such as the Pacific Police Support Group, which will bring a multinational police response capability to the region and deploy for a range of activities, from planned events to natural disaster responses.”
Australia has placed emphasis in recent years on working with other nations in the Pacific on defence and climate action, seeking to improve cooperation.
The then-Labor Opposition in 2022 criticised the then-Liberal Government for a perceived lack of action in the Pacific, with the current Minister for Defence Richard Marles going so far as to say: “They [the Liberal Government] have let the Pacific go.”
Namely, the security pact between the Solomon Islands and China rang alarm bells across the Australian media. It also drew the criticism of the now-Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong, who publicly reprimanded the government on Twitter for not sending the then-Foreign Minister.
The Albanese Government has reiterated a commitment to the region.
“This Blue Pacific was a central part of Labor’s foreign policy commitments at the last election,” the Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy said in an address to the McKell Institute in August last year.
The Minister focused on climate change as a key component of the government’s agenda in the region, as well as defence.
“Just four days into her new role as Foreign Minister, Penny Wong travelled to Fiji to set out this new direction and committed to real action on climate,” Mr Conroy said.
“In a speech at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, she said that for too long, Australia had been ignoring Pacific voices urging us to act on climate change.
“Australia is building on decades of defence and law enforcement cooperation, and investing to play our part in keeping and building peace in the region.”
