 I'm Dr. Kenneth Golfigan Cooper. I'm an Associate Professor of Political Science, Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam. My name is Tiakwa Yuta. I used to work with the University of Guam Government. My last position was an Ambassador in Taiwan. My name is Desisius Kabutolaka and I'm an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii. My name is Dr. Tess Newton Kane. I'm the Project Lead for the Pacific Hub at Griffith Asia Institute from Brisbane, Australia. I'm Gif Johnson. I'm the Editor of the Marshall Islands Journal, which is the weekly newspaper of the Marshall Islands published in Majuro. Maureen Pendrelli, Pacific Network Globalization Coordinator. The U.S. has re-engaged the region, the Pacific region, quite extensively in the last five years. And so I think it's quite important for us to bring Pacific Voices experiences to bear here in Washington, you know, the power seat of the United States. I think there are three security imperatives for the Pacific narratives. One is the nuclear security issue, which really comes from the time and era when the U.S., France and British governments tested nuclear weapons. So we're looking at resolving those kinds of legacy issues in the Pacific. The Pacific took some serious decisions in 1980, setting up one of the very first South Pacific nuclear-free zones, which really regulated nuclear weapons, movement and dumping of nuclear waste in the Pacific. So that's the first security imperative for Pacific Island governments and countries. But since then, the Pacific has worked to widen the scope of the understanding around security. Climate, obviously, is one of the biggest security threats defined by the Pacific. And ultimately, at the center of that, it's really human development or human security, which is that. So you will see that the narrative around security has expanded through nuclear, climate, and now to human security at the center of that. The United States, after World War II, tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, and most significantly tested all of its hydrogen bombs in the Marshall Islands because even though it operated the Nevada test site, it couldn't test big atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs in the continental United States because it didn't want to expose Americans. So the Marshall Islands was considered a good place because it's out in the middle of no place. Populations could be moved off islands and there aren't very many people. Well, the point is there were people, there are people living, there are thousands of people were exposed to the fallout from these huge nuclear weapons tests. Multiple populations were displaced, picked up, moved to different islands, re-evacuated, moved again and again. So there are multiple issues of displacement, of radiation exposure, of damage to the environment. This is a fabulous opportunity for the United States to solve a long-fustering, outstanding problem in a just and fair way that is good for both countries. All of these countries have limited financial resources and that affects all sorts of things in relation to their security agencies, whether they are police or military. So that might include how many people they can recruit, how much training they can offer them, what equipment they have available. Often they may only have one or two patrol boats, often, you know, that and those are gifted or provided by donor partners to police really extensive areas to monitor things like unreported and illegal fishing, border incursions, transnational crime, so trafficking of people or drugs. So maintaining security is a really important issue and that all of those issues that I've mentioned are further exacerbated by the impacts of the climate disaster, the climate crisis. So whether there's, whenever there's a major event, whether it's a landslide in Papua New Guinea, cyclones in Vanuatu, flooding in Solomon Islands, the security agencies, the police and often the military are called upon to be first responders and so that gives an added burden for them to carry and an added aspect of what the expectations are of those agencies. You know, obviously the main challenge for the Pacific Islands in general for the world is climate change. However, I think for where I'm from, Guam, which is still an unincorporated territory of the United States, the intersection between traditional security and human security challenges, we have to pay attention to both of these things equally, right? For example, where I'm from, Guam, in any sort of kinetic conflict with Taiwan, Guam is one of the first places that will be targeted according to various iterations of war games. And so that's the reality. They're building Guam up. The U.S. military occupies 27% of the island. And then you have the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands right above and then the freely associated states. And so we're part of a part of the Pacific that I think has to think about geopolitics and the very real threat of military conflict quite seriously. And so when we say security challenges, what I tend to be very skeptical of is when the United States military wants to provide itself as sort of tout itself as the provider of both traditional security concerns and human security concerns. Because then I think we're blurring a distinction that makes it rather dangerous for the subregion of Micronesia. So Solomon Islands, I think, like other Pacific island places, it's development issues, development issues that would improve the livelihood of people. That's the huge security issue. The geopolitical competition, yes, people hear about it. And increasingly a lot of people know about it. But it's not as important as being able to generate income to send your kids to school or to have a job to look after your family. That's the most important issue for Solomon Islands. Climate change is important for all the Pacific island countries. But for smaller Pacific island countries, in particular like Kiribati and Tovalu, where you have smaller land area. But in spite of that, even places like Solomon Islands have smaller islands. And so one of the challenges is that you have increasing sea level and you have increasing salination of land. We have to relocate those people to other places. And at this time, it's mostly internal relocation. And when you do that, it means having access to land in other islands. And so it increases issues like access to land and competition over access that could potentially lead to conflict. And so there is a development dimension to the climate change issue that every country needs to look at. I think the Pacific is really, in small island states, really at the forefront of the impacts of the climate crisis that we're experiencing. We've been quite assertive in terms of what does that mean, particularly for territorial integrity of island states, particularly at all nations that could see the islands effectively disappear within this century. So I think we are very clear that the international community that caused and particularly developed countries that caused the climate crisis need to resolve this outstanding question about what happens when countries effectively lose territorial control over the islands and the air trolls. You faced with loss of culture. Where will Pacific people move in the context of sea level rise? So those are some of the key framing around climate change and the impacts of climate change. That's a little bit longer term, but obviously we're looking at, you know, economic implications of disasters, natural disasters, cyclones, category five cyclones coming through the region. We're looking at a lanina effect. So I think those are some of the key immediate concerns that our countries have. It hits on our GDPs, economic growth and ability to recover within the context of climate crisis. We're talking now about security in the Pacific region. We're talking about the geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China. I think that's something that's quite interesting to the U.S. But for us, if we want to retain peace and stability in our country, in my country, we need to take care of what the people need and what the people are feeling are their crucial issues. And so we don't want to get lost in the higher level debates of geopolitics and things like that. I think, you know, addressing the climate change issue, the U.S. has made commitment internationally and, you know, gathering such as COP. And that's important. And commitments particularly to reducing greenhouse gas emission. But there are very domestic impacts of climate change that development partners can contribute to. For instance, you know, finding ways in which people not only have access to development opportunities, but adaptation. That climate change is going to stay in a lot of Pacific Island places. And how do we adapt? How do we create living in a changing climate?