Pacific policing deal a masterstroke of Australian diplomacy

A new regional policing agreement represents a significant diplomatic victory for Australia, as well as a security win for the Pacific.

The geopolitical rivalry between China on the one hand and Australia, the United States and their allies on the other has been encroaching on all aspects of regional diplomacy, and Pacific leaders last week came into a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum wanting to refocus the agenda.

And one of the most important issues to the Pacific is transnational crime. With drug cartels from Latin America using Fiji and other Pacific nations as a transit point for drugs entering Australia and New Zealand, transnational crime now sits alongside climate change as the top two regional priorities.

In January, three tons of methamphetamine were seized in Fiji. If delivered to markets in Australia and New Zealand, it could have been valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

Asian crime syndicates and outlaw motorcycle gangs from Australia and New Zealand are also present in some countries, bringing other crimes, such as human trafficking, prostitution and scamming operations.

In June, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told Pacific leaders:

What the new policing agreement will do

This is why this week’s headline announcement of a A$400 million (US$270.6 million) Australian-funded Pacific Policing Initiative is so vital. It’s a comprehensive program designed by Pacific police to meet the increasing threat of transnational crime.

There are three main pillars to the agreement, which will establish:

• four new policing centers providing specialist training across the region,
• a Pacific policing support group able to deploy trained officers to countries for major events or to respond to crises and
• a