Australia and New Zealand will help build and stock warehouses with disaster aid across the Pacific as regional leaders prepare to head to New Caledonia following deadly riots.
Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) foreign ministers met in Fiji on Aug. 9 ahead of the leaders’ meeting in Tonga from Aug. 26.
French ambassador to the Pacific Veronique Roger-Lacan spoke with the forum’s chair and secretary-general, accepting a request from three leaders to visit New Caledonia.
The French territory was engulfed by riots in May, which left 10 people dead, following controversial voting reforms passed in Paris that the Indigenous Kanak population argued would water down its voice.
PIF chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, incoming chair and Tongan Prime Minister Hu’akavemeiliku Siaosi Sovaleni and Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will visit New Caledonia before the leaders meeting.
Roger-Lacan welcomed the condemnation of violence and respect for democratic principles.
“They will see here about what we are doing. We support dialogue,” she told AAP on Aug. 9.
“The visit will include all the stakeholders of the crisis—the schools, the churches and all the political parties involved.”
Foreign ministers have also backed a Pacific policing initiative under which Australia would create a large training facility to train officers from across the region.
The incoming forum chair will seek the endorsement of PIF leaders at the upcoming summit.
It follows Australia agreeing to help expand the Solomon Islands police force to quell reliance on China influence after Beijing struck a security pact with Honiara.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said Canberra was willing to prop up the Pacific nation’s police but wouldn’t go into specifics.
“We are looking at ways in which we can contribute more to Solomon Islands national security and that very much includes its policing activities,” he told ABC radio.
Engaging with the Pacific “was the most cost effective thing we can do in terms of the promotion of our own national security,” Marles said.
Australia and New Zealand also announced a combined $42.6 million (US$28 million) for a warehousing program to store and manage disaster relief supplies needed to respond to an emergency within the first 48 hours.
Warehouses will be built in 14 Pacific island nations and East Timor and include supplies to help women, children, and people with disabilities who are more vulnerable during disasters.
Australia will put a further $16.7 million (US$11 million) towards cyber security and fund measures to modernise hardware and software to better protect against online threats.
The deployment of rapid cyber assistance across the Pacific to respond to threats and attacks has also been funded.
About $18.5 million (US$12.2 million) will also flow to surveillance and enforcement of illegal fishing and $25 million (US$16.4 million) will go towards building a research vessel.