Albanese welcomed by Samoa villagers before celebrating Pacific police initiative, as CHOGM meeting wraps up

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has celebrated a new pacific policing initiative backed by Australia, marking a new chapter for the pacific region’s collective security.

Transcript

00:00The symbolism behind this event was very, very clear.

00:05This is something called the Pacific Policing Support Group.

00:09This is actually the support group's first ever deployment under something called the

00:13Pacific Policing Initiative, endorsed by Pacific Island leaders a couple of months ago in Tonga.

00:18Now there's a couple of things that's driving this.

00:21The first is a desire in Australia to try and bolster the capability of police forces

00:27around the region.

00:28You've got a training centre that's been set up in Brisbane, near the airport there.

00:31And then you've also got this support group that can be deployed to various hotspots or

00:36major events around the region.

00:38And this deployment to Chogham is the first one that the PPSG, as it's called, has done.

00:45So one, it's about capability, but the second element here is strategic.

00:50And the aim here is very clear.

00:53Australia and New Zealand in particular are clear for a Pacific-led approach to security

00:57in part because they want to make sure that China doesn't insert itself as a major security

01:03or policing player in the Pacific.

01:06There's enormous unease still in Canberra about that policing deal that Solomon Islands

01:10struck with China not that long ago.

01:12There's an awareness and a worry that China is intent on striking similar deals across

01:17the Pacific.

01:18So the idea is if Australia and New Zealand and the Pacific can work together to provide

01:23security for major events or to respond to crises, then there'll simply be no need for

01:28Pacific Island nations to turn to outside players, perhaps particularly China, for assistance.

01:34Let's take a listen to what the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had to say about this initiative

01:38here in Samoa.

01:40The Pacific family needs to provide security for the Pacific by the Pacific.

01:48And that's what this initiative is about.

01:51Pacific neighbours want to look after each other.

01:55We do that in times of crisis.

01:57The Fijian Prime Minister spoke about the deployment of Fijian support during the bushfires

02:04in Australia of 2019-20.

02:07Australia regularly provides support for our Pacific neighbours and I think what this does

02:13is confirm the Pacific family needs to look after our own security in our own interests.

02:20Today leaders have their retreat, which means their private one-on-one conversations where

02:24you'd imagine perhaps the most sensitive and difficult topics are likely to be broached.

02:29We're expecting the Commonwealth leaders to issue a final statement at the end of the day.

02:34They're also going to issue an oceans declaration that's expected to commit all Commonwealth

02:38nations to making sweeping protections of the ocean.

02:41We might see commitments for as much as 30 per cent of oceans to be protected.

02:46On top of that, it will be interesting to see exactly what leaders have to say on the

02:50rather fraught and difficult question of reparations.

02:54Some Caribbean and African nations have been pushing for the United Kingdom to pay financial

02:59reparations or engage in what's called repertory justice in acknowledgement of the depredations

03:05of slavery.

03:07Now the United Kingdom has essentially ruled that out.

03:09It says it wants to look forward rather than looking back.

03:12But it does seem likely that that final leader statement will make a reference to a need

03:16for quote a conversation at the very least on the issue.

03:20Now, how one-sided that conversation is depends on the United Kingdom, but I think there's

03:25enough of a push behind this from enough countries in the Commonwealth that the issue can't simply

03:31be swept away.

03:32The appetite for this discussion means that the United Kingdom at some point, even if

03:37it doesn't want to actually pay reparations, is probably going to have to come to the table

03:42for a talk about exactly where this issue goes.

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