US eyes wider Southeast Asian role in Pacific crime fight

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The United States is open to involving more Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, in future editions of the US–Pacific Islands Conference of Police Ministers (COPMIN), a senior US diplomat said.

US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) F Cartwright Weiland said the rising transnational crime across the Pacific required broader international cooperation.

"We welcome continued engagement with partners across the Pacific and the Americas who share our goal of disrupting these transnational criminal networks that threaten our shared security," Weiland said in response to a question from ANTARA during a virtual press briefing monitored here on Tuesday.

The inaugural US Pacific Islands COPMIN took place in Los Angeles, California, on October 21–22, bringing together law enforcement and security chiefs from the US, Pacific Island countries, Ecuador, and the Philippines.

The forum is established to bolster collective action against illicit narcotics syndicates, cross-border online scams, trade-based money laundering, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Weiland noted the participation of the Philippines, an archipelagic country facing maritime surveillance and illegal fishing challenges similar to those confronting Indonesia and Pacific Island states, paved the way for other regional peers to join.

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"There are challenges that the Philippines faces, Indonesia faces, and various other countries share as well… The Philippines is now engaged (in the COPMIN this year), which certainly speaks to a future in which similar nations may become involved as well," Weiland noted.

Beyond Southeast Asia, Weiland said Washington is also working to deepen maritime law enforcement cooperation with South Asian countries to disrupt illicit narcotics supply chains traversing the Indo-Pacific.

"We are already working with essentially every law enforcement agency in the Pacific, but INL has sections throughout South Asia as well," he added.

Although he could not confirm whether COPMIN would become an annual event or which countries will receive future invitations, Weiland emphasized the importance of continuing the forum's strategic value.

"I don't know necessarily that we have plans in the works for 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 last conference and for us to build on this, perhaps as soon as next year," he said.

During the conference, the US Department of State also launched the Regional Interdiction Partnership for Trafficking Intelligence, Disruption, and Enforcement (RIPTIDE), a US$4 million initiative to disrupt trans-Pacific criminal networks.

Developed in partnership with INTERPOL, the program aims to strengthen real-time intelligence sharing across the organization's 196 member countries.

It is designed to link evidence seizures, cross-border investigations, and the apprehension of cartel leaders and their financial backers.

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Reporter: Uyu Septiyati Liman
Editor: Bayu Prasetyo
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