Australia and Its Pacific Neighbors Team Up on Climate and Security

Australia is making a bigger commitment to working with Pacific Island nations on two linked challenges: climate change and security. The country just signed a major climate finance agreement and is exploring a deeper security partnership with Fiji.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended his fourth Pacific Islands Forum meeting and signed a new treaty to create the Pacific Resilience Facility—a shared fund to help island nations adapt to climate change. Australia is putting in $100 million to get it started. The facility turns what used to be scattered aid from different countries into one coordinated system that all Pacific Island nations can use.

How the Climate Money Will Work

The Pacific Resilience Facility is a permanent structure for paying for climate adaptation across the Pacific Islands. Think of it as a shared bank account that island nations can draw from, rather than asking each donor country for help separately.

Pacific Island leaders, including Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, pushed for this kind of pooled system. Before now, smaller island nations had to negotiate with each country individually to get climate money—a slow and fragmented process. The facility creates one standard way to request funds and get money out.

For Australia, this approach makes sense. It reduces the burden of running separate aid programs with many countries while keeping Australia involved in what happens with the money. Other donors like New Zealand, Japan, and European countries may also participate.

The broader context here is that small island nations face an existential threat from rising sea levels and changing weather. Climate resilience is not a side issue for them—it is their primary security concern. When Australia frames climate adaptation alongside security cooperation, it is acknowledging what Pacific nations have been saying all along.

A Deeper Partnership with Fiji

At the same time, Australia and Fiji are discussing upgrading their partnership to a formal security treaty. Australia and Fiji already work together through something called the Vuvale partnership, started in 2019. The new treaty would formalize defense cooperation—things like sharing intelligence, training together, and coordinating patrols in the ocean.

For Fiji, this would strengthen its ability to monitor and secure its waters. For Australia, it would lock in a security partnership that survives changes in government and political leadership in either country. Right now, these kinds of partnerships depend a lot on personal relationships between leaders, which can shift with elections.

The timing matters. China has also expanded its involvement in Pacific affairs since 2019. A formal treaty between Australia and Fiji creates a permanent relationship that does not depend on whoever happens to be in power at any given moment.

Staying Connected with the Solomon Islands

Australia is also maintaining dialogue with the Solomon Islands, even though tensions exist. In June 2024, Prime Minister Albanese met with Solomon Islands leaders in the western province. This is significant because the Solomon Islands government signed a security agreement with China in 2022, which created friction with Australia.

By engaging with individual provinces rather than only the national government, Australia is keeping channels open. The Solomon Islands has a system where provinces have some independence in their relationships with other countries. Australia is using this structure to maintain development cooperation and dialogue below the national level.

This approach reflects lessons learned: when Australia focused too heavily on national government relationships in the past, it lost influence when those relationships soured. Engaging with provinces provides more resilience.

Why Australia Keeps Building Institutions

Australia has done something similar before. In the 1990s, Australia expanded its involvement in Pacific institutions when it was concerned about regional stability. The current approach—creating the Pacific Resilience Facility as a permanent structure—follows that same playbook: build institutions that will outlast any single leader or political term.

What is different now is that Australia is linking climate action directly to security. This is not accidental. It reflects the reality that for Pacific Island nations, climate change is the defining security threat. By anchoring security cooperation in climate adaptation, Australia is working on Pacific nations' top priority while also advancing its own strategic goals.

Institutions matter because they last. When a program depends on one leader's decision or one year's budget, it is fragile. When something is written into a formal treaty, it persists through elections and budget cycles in both countries. The Pacific Resilience Facility is designed to keep money flowing and coordination happening, regardless of who is in power.

Australia's approach of combining a big multilateral initiative with individual bilateral relationships shows a lesson in Pacific engagement: you need both. The shared facility creates efficiency and signals collective commitment. The individual partnerships with countries like Fiji acknowledge that each nation has unique needs and priorities.

For Pacific Island nations, this dual approach means they get access to climate finance while still having a say in which projects get funded. It is a balance between getting the help they need and maintaining control over their own choices.