Television Interview, ABC Afternoon Briefing

SUBJECTS: South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting (SPDMM); Pacific Response Group; Transnational Organised Crime

SARA TOMEVSKA [HOST]: The South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting, which includes Australia, Chile, Fiji, France and more, has wrapped up in Fiji. On the top of the agenda was the Pacific Response Group, which was formed in 2024 as part of a push from Australia and several other governments to develop a more coordinated response to natural disasters in the region. For more, I spoke to the Assistant Defence Minister, Peter Khalil, who's in Fiji for the meeting. Peter Khalil, welcome to Afternoon Briefing.

PETER KHALIL [ASSISTANT MINISTER KHALIL]: Hi, Sara, how are you?

TOMEVSKA: Good. Look, Pacific officers said earlier this year they'd like a treaty in place to actually make it easier for the Pacific Response Group to tackle civil unrest as well as natural disasters. But looking at the communique that's come out, it seems Ministers have ordered a bit of a go slow here. So, when will treaty negotiations actually begin?

KHALIL: Well, Sara, actually the Pacific Response Group that you refer to is not a treaty, but rather part of the architecture. In fact, there is a treaty in place, the Vuvale Union and the Oceans of Peace Alliance, which is a significant defence treaty that we have already signed with Fiji, which is a tremendous step forward in our relationship. Likewise, the Pukpuk Treaty, a defence treaty with PNG, and the Nakamala Agreement with Vanuatu. The work that's been done in the Pacific Islands with respect to our agreements and our treaties is quite significant, given that we've only had one treaty in the past 75 years and we've signed another three in a very short period of time, just in the last couple of years with the Pacific Response Group.

TOMEVSKA: Yeah. Pacific leaders are calling for a treaty in particular about this Pacific Response Group, aren't they?

KHALIL: That's not quite correct. The Pacific Response Group, the agreements that we discussed, what we discussed during the last couple of days amongst the Defence Ministers of the South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting, we agreed to actually expand and broaden the mandate of the Pacific Response Group. It's already done terrific work on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. We're looking to broaden that mandate to do peace and security and stabilisation efforts. And beyond that, we've already started the work with our partners around, under the treaties that I just talked about, around the work that we're doing to protect our sovereignty, to keep the Pacific Ocean free and open, and also do the work necessary where our militaries work together to actually, you know, interdict illicit drug trafficking, illegal fishing and all of the very important cooperative work that is being undertaken amongst the Pacific island states.

TOMEVSKA. So, Australia can already deploy the ADF to the Pacific if requested. Why do we need this formalised grouping?

KHALIL: Well, it's really important the South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting because it is an opportunity for the Ministers of the member states, which include also France and Chile, PNG, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, to actually work together and not just look at our individual arrangements, but the regional architecture, the regional work that we do together in cooperating on the challenges, the shared security challenges and issues that we face. There is actually quite a lot of substance that came out of the meetings of the last couple of days, including the expansion of the Pacific Response Group, interlinking with the Pacific Island Forum leaders intent, and also the work that we're doing within what's called Waqa Moana, which is a huge initiative that we're doing, undertaking, where we've invested $300 million around working with, enhancing the capabilities of our partners to take on the illicit drug trafficking which is coming through the Pacific from Latin America and has a social and economic impact on the peoples that we represent. So, that is really important work because the militaries are working together with our capabilities to stop that illicit drug drug trafficking.

TOMEVSKA: Well, just on that, Fiji earlier this month declared a national health emergency with one in every 60 adults in Fiji now living with HIV due to the escalating use of methamphetamines. Drug smuggling, which obviously goes through Fiji mainly to get to Australia, is a major issue. So, what are some of the concrete steps, if any, that are being discussed to help tackle that issue?

KHALIL: Yeah, that's exactly what we engage with in our work in the last couple of days with the Fijian Defence Minister Pio and the other Ministers that were present our joint efforts around what we call TNOC, Transnational Organised Crime, which includes the drug trade, the illicit drug trade. The concrete steps that we're taking are around capability. The work that we're doing together as far as utilising our air surveillance, our maritime assets, the uncrewed surface vessels that we have in Australia and that we're negotiating to have Fiji acquire so that they can interdict, they can deter, detect and deter that illicit drug trafficking to protect their people and our people from that illicit drug trade. So, there is a real substantive action taking place under these arrangements and this is really important for both of our people.

TOMEVSKA: And has more aid been sought from Fiji?

KHALIL: We have a significant development assistance program for Fiji. In fact, I visited the Blackrock Training Centre just yesterday with Minister Pio and the commander of the military, Fijian military forces and got briefings there. This is a centre that's state-of-the-art, which we invested in $100 million which goes to training peacekeeping forces, but also humanitarian assistance, disaster relief. There are strain aid packages there that we have as a logistics hub that allows us to distribute through our strategic airlift across the Pacific. We've also, as I said, invested over $300 million in Waqa Moana, which is around enhancing the capabilities of the nations of the Pacific to tackle these joint security challenges. So, there's a significant amount of investment Australia's made overall with Fiji, for example, it's about $1.5 billion as part of the Vuvale Union and the Mutual Defence Treaty, which we are investing into Fiji and Fijian capabilities. Around one billion of that is in direct grants.

TOMEVSKA: Peter Khalil, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you for your time.

KHALIL: Thank you.

ENDS