No wonder doubts linger over geopolitical calculations behind Pacific Policing Initiative

This demonstrates how Pacific leaders are working together to shape the future that we want to see,

said Albanese, hailing the agreement

We have a national process that we have to dive into it,

said Beck, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The entire Pacific is the biggest unpoliced space in planet Earth,

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape told the media

The first task of an international leader is to look after the security and safety of our residents, and that is what this is about. Making sure that by working together, the security of the entire region will be much stronger and will be looked after by ourselves,

Australia would be celebrating this as a win for the region, and an endorsement of Australia’s role as the main security partner for Pacific Island countries”.

Mihai Sora, a Pacific expert at the Lowy Institute and former diplomat in the region, said

Australia's police initiative is exclusive and heavily laden with geopolitical overtones, with certain provisions being unfair to the Pacific countries. The initiative attempts to place Pacific policing entirely under Western control, excluding China's presence. This could potentially militarize and securitize what should be regional cooperation based on development and cooperation, thereby undermining the sovereignty and strategic autonomy of the countries in the region,

Chen said

We are basically reviewing our national security strategy and everything, so it will be part of the conversation. The matter is still going on. The forum is not yet done,

Sovereign nation states will determine how they participate in this, but this is an ongoing process led by the Pacific police and police chiefs for the Pacific, with backing, substantial financial backing, from Australia,

Albanese said

This is essentially a geopolitical game to intervene in or even control the security decisions, defense and other internal and external affairs of regional countries through the initiative, aiming to exclude China and serve the US' 'Indo-Pacific Strategy,'

Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center of East China Normal University, told the Global Times

We have our security partners; at the moment Australia remains our security partner of choice, especially for policing matters.”

I can say to you that no minister or leader of a Pacific government has said that to me.”

We’re part of the Pacific family and over the next couple of days we’ll be talking about our common interests, how we work together to combat climate change [and] for economic development and for peace and security in our region,

It’s not an easy thing for so many diverse countries to come together to agree on something so complex and sensitive as regional security co-operation,

Tonga, like many other countries, is facing a number of transnational security challenges, including an increase in drug trafficking within the Pacific in recent years,