Pacific does not need more security bodies: Tupou-Roosen

The Pacific does not need more security institutions. It needs to make better use of the ones it already has.

That’s the message from Dr Manu Tupou-Roosen, a former Director-General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), to regional leaders meeting in Palau.

Ms Tupou-Roosen spoke at a side event of the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting in Koror, Palau, this week.

She pointed to the FFA and the Parties to the Nauru Agreement as proof the region works when it has common purpose.

"The Pacific already benefits from very rich, diverse and capable regional mechanism organisations, so I don't think that the primary challenge is a lack of institutions," she said.

"It's not about creating more institutions, but making the best use of what we've got."

She said Fiji and its neighbours faced interconnected threats – maritime, food, energy and economic security, gender-based violence, drugs, health crises and online harms.

These needed stronger coordination between agencies, and closer links to national priorities, she said.

Palau's Justice Minister Jennifer Olegeriil said political will had to outlast the summit season.

Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Paulson Panapa said momentum needed year-round structure, not just annual meetings.

Palauan disability rights advocate Villaney Remengesau said Pacific communities were tired of talk.

"If we meet again in three to five years, we want to see real changes in our lives. Enough of talking. We need action," she said.

The event followed the launch of the 2026 Pacific Peace and Security Dialogue Report, which described the region's overlapping crises – climate change, geopolitics and transnational crime – as a "polycrisis".

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