By Pita Ligaiula
LOS ANGELES, (PACNEWS)- The United States has warned that drug cartels and narcoterrorist groups are expanding their reach into the Pacific, urging greater regional attention and stronger law enforcement cooperation to address rising insecurity.
Cartwright Weiland, U.S Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said criminal networks responsible for violence and drug trafficking in the Americas were increasingly extending their operations into Pacific island countries.
“From a geopolitical perspective, we really can’t ignore the insecurity that we’re now seeing on some of these islands,” Weiland said during a virtual press briefing following the first U.S-Pacific Islands Conference of Police Ministers in Los Angeles last week.
He said the United States was concerned about reports of rising crime, violence and drug consumption in Pacific communities, warning that the region needed greater international attention.
“From an American perspective, we need to pay more attention than we have in the past to what’s going on, because increasingly, the cartels and the narcoterrorists that are inflicting great harm on the Americas, and the U.S specifically, are now reaching their tentacles into the Pacific,” he said.
Weiland said the shared nature of the threat made closer cooperation between the United States and Pacific governments necessary.
He stressed that Washington recognised the sovereignty of Pacific Island countries and the capabilities of their law enforcement agencies, saying the U.S role was to support rather than dictate their response.
“They know their countries, they know their communities much better than we do,” he said.
Weiland said Pacific countries brought their own strengths and experience to tackling emerging security challenges, drawing on their histories of warriors and traditional navigators who crossed vast distances across the ocean.
He said these traditions reflected the capacity of Pacific nations to address new threats while maintaining control over their own security priorities.
“What they’re seeing is an extension of what we’re seeing in our country.
“And so it really just makes sense for us to become connected in ways that, for better or for worse, we just haven’t been in the past,” Weiland said.
The U.S official described last week’s conference in Los Angeles as a significant step towards closer cooperation between Pacific police ministers and American law enforcement agencies.
He said there was strong interest among participants in continuing the discussions, although no decision had been made on a second conference.
“I don’t know necessarily that we have plans in the works for a COPMIN 2.0, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that there was great desire for this not to be the only conference and for us to build on this perhaps as soon as next year,” he said.
The first U.S-Pacific Islands Conference of Police Ministers (COPMIN) brought together Pacific police ministers and senior U.S officials to discuss drug trafficking, maritime enforcement, cybercrime and other transnational criminal threats.
The meeting was part of broader US efforts to strengthen law enforcement partnerships across the Pacific as criminal networks exploit the region’s vast maritime area and international transport routes.
Weiland said the United States remained available to work with Pacific partners on drug and crime-related issues, emphasising the need for sustained engagement beyond the conference….PACNEWS