Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined other Pacific leaders to endorse the Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI), a major regional initiative to strengthen collective peace and security throughout the Pacific.
Prime Minister Albanese pointed that the policing initiative continues a long history of Pacific police forces working together to strengthen regional peace and security, and to support each other in times of need.
“This is a Pacific-led, Australia-backed initiative, harnessing our collective strengths. We are stronger together. The security of the Pacific is the shared responsibility of the Pacific region and this initiative benefits each of our nations.”
The PPI will boost the capability of Pacific nations to meet law and order and internal security requirements, and to support each other in times of need.
The PPI has three pillars:
- Up to four regional police training Centres of Excellence, located in the Pacific, to enhance policing capabilities through specialist training and operational support for Pacific police personnel.
- The Pacific Police Support Group (PPSG) – a multi-country police capability, with a ready pool of trained Pacific police to deploy in response to Pacific country requirements, such as for major event management or additional capacity in times of crisis.
- A PPI Policing Development and Coordination Hub to be hosted in Brisbane – including access to state of the art AFP facilities for training and to prepare for any PPSG deployments.
Australia will commit approximately $400 million over five years to ensure the PPI delivers on the aspirations of Pacific countries. Australia’s contribution will include infrastructure costs associated with new policing Centres of Excellence in the region.
Prime Minister Albanese was caught out in an unfiltered hot mic incident when during a private conversation with the US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell he was filmed without consent by New Zealand journalist Lydia Lewis.
In the exchange, SkyNews reports, Campbell appeared to suggest that Washington had held off on a major announcement in order to give Australia the spotlight at the forum. To which, Albanese responded: “We had a cracker today getting the Pacific policing Initiative through; it’s so important”.
The US Deputy Secretary of State then revealed he had agreed with Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd to hold off on announcing “something”: “I talked with Kevin about it and we were going to do something and he asked us not to, so we did not – we’ve given you the lane, so take the lane.”
The video then captured Albanese jokingly suggest the US might consider sharing the cost of the $400 million Pacific Policing Initiative: “You can go us halvies on the cost if you like.”
The PPI is a practical contribution to the Pacific Islands Forum’s peace and security vision outlined in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and it builds on the recent experience of the Solomons International Assistance Force.
Discussions on an integrated regional policing capability were first held at the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police meeting in 2023. Pacific police are finalising a PPI design process that ensures this initiative will be by the Pacific and for the Pacific.
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