The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has joined Pacific partners in Samoa to strengthen disaster preparedness across the region, as part of the United States-led Exercise Pacific Partnership 2025.
Exercise Pacific Partnership is the US Navy's largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission in the Indo-Pacific. The exercise aims to strengthen regional capacity by working shoulder-to-shoulder with host nations to increase medical services, engineering support, and disaster response capabilities.
As part of the Exercise, ADF personnel - alongside forces from the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, and the United Kingdom - collaborated with representatives from the Australian Civil-Military Centre and Samoan agencies to rehearse a mass rescue scenario.
Samoa is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events, and the Exercise sought to improve disaster readiness and regional interoperability ahead of the upcoming high-risk weather season.
Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral Justin Jones, AO, CSC, RAN, said the exercise demonstrated Australia's commitment to supporting regional resilience.
"Australia is committed to working in partnership with Pacific island countries to build our region's capacity to prepare and respond to disaster events," Vice Admiral Jones said.
"Participating in multinational missions like Pacific Partnership allows the ADF to share its unique knowledge to support disaster response efforts across the Pacific family."
Australian disaster management planner, Major Paul Randall, said the disaster management workshop and field training exercise allowed Samoan agencies to rehearse coordination with partner militaries for a potential future response.
"This exercise enabled the ADF, the Australian Civil-Military Centre, and partner militaries to work alongside Samoan counterparts to identify how we can best support them in the event of disaster," Major Randall said.
"By practising communication and deployment with our Pacific partners, we strengthen our collective preparedness and improve interoperability-ensuring we're ready to respond together when it matters most."
The ADF will also be supporting activities in Papua New Guinea and the Federated States of Micronesia under Pacific Partnership 2025; deploying personnel with expertise in operations planning, medical and dental, gender peace and security, environmental health, chaplaincy and community engagement aboard US ships.
ADF support to Pacific Partnership 2025 will conclude in November.
