Pacific Islands Forum members have made clear their desire to broaden and deepen the region’s security agenda. In parallel, both longstanding and new partner countries have sought to become more active in the region, in the context of geopolitical competition in the broader Indo-Pacific region.

This paper makes initial policy proposals concerning the following Pacific maritime security issues: responding to geopolitical competition; legal and regulatory environment; fisheries cooperation; transnational crime; and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. 

It also makes initial policy proposals for how the following partner countries can enhance their maritime security assistance and cooperation in the Pacific Islands region: Australia, New Zealand, The United States, France, Japan and South Korea, India and China.

The recent proliferation of maritime security initiatives by partner countries offers opportunities for responding to Pacific priorities. But it also poses risks of conflict, duplication, poor targeting, and overwhelming regional coordination and oversight capabilities. This suggests that the priority should be to enhance, streamline and harmonise existing maritime security initiatives rather than to create new ones.