Ministerial Forum for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
On 22 February 2022, the European Union organised a Ministerial Forum for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. The 27 EU Foreign Ministers joined 30 Foreign Ministers from the Indo-Pacific, as well as Representatives of the regional organisations from both Indian ocean and Pacific ocean. This event was the first embodiment of the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, which was launched in September 2021.
The Forum was structured around three roundtables: global challenges, connectivity and digital issues, and security and defence. New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta co-chaired the global challenges roundtable together with EU Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans. It addressed health, climate, biodiversity and oceans.
Discussions during the meeting helped to identify ideas and avenues for cooperation between the EU and its Indo-Pacific partners.
New Zealand signed a Joint Declaration on privacy and the protection of personal data. Along with the EU and countries including Australia, participants share a common vision of a human-centric approach. To achieve this goal, we intend to foster international cooperation to promote high data protection and privacy standards. These are based on certain core elements increasingly shared across the Indo-Pacific region and Europe. Other signatories are Comoros, India, Japan, Mauritius, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
The EU announced the extension of a coordinated maritime presence in the north-west Indian Ocean to the Pacific. CRIMARIO (Critical Maritime Routes in the Indo-Pacific) will extend from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean. This will allow the EU to further support stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region, to optimise naval deployments, to promote coherence of European action and to facilitate the exchange of information and cooperation with partners in the Indo-Pacific, including by conducting joint maritime exercises and port calls.
Biodiversity preservation and ocean protection is a shared concern for the EU and Indo-Pacific. The EU stressed the importance of consolidating Team Europe Initiatives such as the Green-Blue Alliance for the Pacific and Timor-Leste. The EU announced an increase in its contribution to the KIWA initiative, where New Zealand and Australia are also contributors. The KIWA Initiative strengthens climate adaptation and preserves the unique character of biodiversity in the Pacific Ocean.
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