Pacific defence ministers in Auckland. 3 Ocotber 2024 Photo: Facebook / Richard Marles MP
-An earlier version of this story published on 3 October 2024 stated that it was the first time for PNG to attend the SPDMM. That was incorrect. It was the first time for PNG's Defence Minister Dr Billy Joseph to attend. Also, the Pacific Islands Forum will not be endorsing the PRG. It's separate and sovereign.
The establishment of a Pacific Response Group (PRG) is one of the main outcomes of the ninth South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting (SPDMM) which wrapped up in Auckland on Thursday.
The three-day SPDMM was hosted by New Zealand with Chile, France, Fiji, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Tonga attending as members.
Japan, United Kingdom and the United States attended as observer countries.
"Members recommitted to enhance their ability to jointly respond to climate-induced disasters, meet the increased demand for rapid and effective Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief response, address maritime security threats, such as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and transnational crime across their vast exclusive economic zones, and tackle cyber threats, alongside other agencies," the SPDMM joint communique stated.
"They agreed that the PRG would be a regional asset that would, upon request, enable more effective co-deployments in an increasingly disaster-prone region."
New Zealand's Defence Minister Judith Collins said the defence ministers came up with 17 different deliverables, including a PRG, where militaries from member countries, bar Chile, would be involved.
This group will train together and be deployed to assist in humanitarian disasters in the region at the request of affected states.
Collins said the meeting "concluded with renewed commitment to regional security of all types", and emphasised it would help with coordinating responses to cyclonic events, volcanoes, climate change issues.
"To make sure we do things once and we do it right, that we all know who's doing what and we don't duplicate," she said.
She said it would be up to sovereign Pacific Island nations to ask for help but that the response would also be endorsed by the Pacific Islands Forum.
Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles explained what it would mean for them.
"A small advance coordinating unit will be based in Brisbane, which will at this point comprise all the representatives of the South Pacific, the South Pacific defense ministers meeting with Chile as an observer."
He said sometimes countries can be "overwhelmed with the love, and it does require coordination from the get go, and that's really what the Pacific response group is going to do".
Marles explained why thought the region needed to have the "most efficient military community".
"We have a relatively small population across this table responsible for a very significant piece of global real estate, and in order to provide security over that kind of area, we really do need to have the most efficient military community we can possibly provide, and this is really a very significant step down that path," he said.
It was the first year the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) secretary general had been invited.
PIF secretary general Baron Waqa said it was important that "peace and stability in the region" was "prioritised."
Referencing the armsrace between China and the US, he said "the geopolitics occuring and evident in our region, is not welcomed by any of us in the Pacific Islands Forum."
Collins said she was well aware of the tensions within the region.
"The past three days have been a reminder of how our neighborhood is not a benign, strategic environment, if it ever was, and how it is becoming more and more complex."