All recommendations to enhance the sharing of best practices and regional cooperation have been adopted by the 4th South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting (SPDMM) held in Nadi.
Nadi is Fiji’s third largest city.
Fijian Defence Minister Inia Seruiratu said on Friday that this included New Zealand’s proposal to host a Climate Change and Defence Working Group Meeting in 2020 to assist member countries to progress outcomes.
Seruiratu said the ministers also requested Chile’s Minister of Defence to explore the possibility to include a panel to discuss and propose how defence could support mitigation efforts against climate change as part of COP25 in 2019.
Australia has also proposed to make the meeting an annual forum and offered to host the 5th SPDMM in 2020.
The SPDMM is the only forum available for defence ministers, chiefs of defence and their respective representatives to discuss the key security priorities of the Pacific region.
Seruiratu said the SPDMM through a series of bilateral meetings had focused on the importance of responding to both traditional and non-traditional security threats that not only affected them as individual states but collectively as a region.
“We collectively recognised the evolving geo-politics of the region and the rapidly shifting and complex dynamics influencing regional security.’’
Seruiratu said this included transnational and cyber security threats, maritime security challenges and natural disasters among others.
The ministers discussed at length the effects of climate change which remains as the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and wellbeing of Pacific peoples.
The forum appreciated a French-led study conducted in collaboration with all SPDMM members to highlight the increasingly severe effects of Climate Change and their impact on security in the region.
Besides Fiji, attending the meeting were representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, France, Papua New Guinea and Tonga with the United States and Britain as observers.
