Read the Dialogue Report

Executive Summary

This report is produced as part of the third year of APLN’s project on Nuclear Disarmament and the Anthropocene: Voices from Pacific Island Countries. Authored by Dr Tanvi Kulkarni, Senior Policy Fellow at APLN, and Ms Elaine Natalie, former Policy Fellow at APLN, the report presents a comprehensive roadmap for Asia-Pacific collaboration that prioritises indigenous perspectives and regional solutions over externally imposed frameworks.

The APLN ‘Suva Dialogue on Security in the Pacific and Asia’ brought together twenty participants from thirteen countries across the broader Asia-Pacific region. It aimed to facilitate greater collaboration and build better understanding between experts, policy practitioners, and civil society groups from Asia and the Pacific, to foster trust and to advocate for concrete collective actions. Participants were invited to explore six key themes:

1. Understanding the “Asia-Pacific.”
2. Identifying Converging and Diverging Security Concerns.
3. Nuclear Risks in the Asia-Pacific.
4. Climate Insecurities in the Asia-Pacific.
5. Navigating the US-China Strategic Competition.
6. Broadening the Asia-Pacific Dialogue.

This dialogue report summaries the major findings and crucial takeaways that emerged from the discussions at three virtual roundtables organised by APLN from September to October 2024 and the Track 2 ‘Suva Dialogue on Security in the Pacific and Asia’ hosted and convened by APLN in April 2025. The project is supported by the Ploughshares Fund under the Equity Rises Initiative.

Key Report Findings:

• Breaking Free from Binary Frameworks: The report emphasises that Asia-Pacific states must reject constraining binary geopolitical frameworks, such as US-China competition. Instead, countries should strengthen multilateral diplomacy and build sustainable capacities that avoid perpetuating colonial patterns of resource extraction and economic coercion. The Pacific Islands’ “friends to all and enemies to none” posture provides a model for maintaining strategic flexibility while prioritising national interests.

• Addressing Foundational Regional Challenges: Effective Asia-Pacific collaboration requires addressing core internal issues, including dysfunctional governance, high rates of non-communicable diseases, and research capacity gaps. The report identifies “low-hanging” areas for immediate cooperation, including climate change response, disaster resilience, maritime security (particularly illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing), and public health initiatives. The formalised cooperation between ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) emerges as the most promising framework for regional collaboration.
• Building Nuclear and Climate Risk Synergies: Despite varied historical experiences with nuclear weapons across the region, the report identifies opportunities for collective action by studying lessons from states burdened by nuclear testing legacies. The partnership between Kiribati and Kazakhstan exemplifies a successful model of cooperation. On climate, the report calls for decolonising the climate agenda by dismantling colonial power structures in governance and finance, empowering indigenous voices, and investing in resilient infrastructure.

Recommendations for Regional Action:

• Promoting Mutual Exposure:There is a need for greater mutual “exposure” between leaders and scholars in Asia and the Pacific, with particular emphasis on Asian leaders and thinkers traveling to the Pacific to experience the local realities and struggles firsthand, and vice versa.
• Decolonising Security Concepts:The shared experience of colonialism shapes how Asian and the Pacific Islands countries view security and cooperation. Therefore ongoing discussions between Asia and the Pacific Islands must continuously critique and push back against Western-imposed concepts (like traditional versus non-traditional security), understood as colonial narratives. This involves reclaiming local terms and adopting a humanized, decolonized approach for the “betterment of humanity.”
• Multi-level Engagement:Cooperation should happen not only at the state level but also at the non-state level, involving civil society, youth, academia, and the private sector, especially when high-level government structures are dysfunctional.
• Reciprocal Capacity Building:Asia can help the Pacific with research and data capacity, but Asia must also learn from the Pacific’s indigenous concepts like relationality and ecological stewardship. An Asia-Pacific dialogue must be reflexive and proactive, acknowledging that norms and values are contested, and that progress can be achieved by working around these contestations rather than expecting rigid systems.

About the authors

Tanvi Kulkarni is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network (APLN), based in India. Her primary research focus is on nuclear politics, including doctrines, diplomacy, arms control and confidence building measures, and she has published research on South Asia’s nuclear weapons programmes. She has a Master of Philosophy and PhD in Diplomacy and Disarmament studies from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her PhD thesis examines why states in a nuclear dyad negotiate nuclear confidence-building measures. Dr Kulkarni is also a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi and a South Asia Advisor at the International Students/ Young Pugwash (ISYP). She has previously taught at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at the Savitribai Phule Pune University and co-ordinated the India-Pakistan Chaophraya Track II Dialogue.

Elaine Natalie was a Policy Fellow at APLN. She is a graduate of Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies with a Master’s degree in International Cooperation. Elaine received her Bachelor’s degree from Yonsei University’s Underwood International College, where she majored in International Studies and minored in Political Science and International Relations. Born and raised in Indonesia, Elaine is fluent in English and Indonesian. Her research interests include the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation treaties and regimes, and the intersection of existential threats in the Asia-Pacific region.

Disclaimer: The opinions articulated in this work represent the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network or any of its members. The APLN’s website is a source of authoritative research and analysis and serves as a platform for debate and discussion among our senior network members, experts and practitioners, as well as the next generation of policymakers, analysts and advocates. Comments and responses can be emailed to apln@apln.network.

Image: Photo taken at the APLN Suva Dialogue in April 2025 by Elaine Natalie.