Political Scientist at the University of Hawaii Professor Tarcius Kabutaulaka

A renowned Pacific political scientist has sounded the alarm on the disadvantages spying activities can have in the Pacific region following the US Pentagon’s leaked documents earlier this year.

An activity that revealed that the USA has been spying on their allies, including countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

The US have been involved in various Pacific spying activities.

Political Scientist at the University of Hawaii Professor Tarcius Kabutaulaka says the East Timor spying scandal by Australia in ahead of the negotiations on access to oil and gas in the Timor gap in 2004 and Edward Snowden’s documents revelation in 2015 revealing NZ’s mass spying activities on Pacific Island countries show that the active sharing of information within the five eyes, namely the US, NZ, UK, Australia, and Canada, may still be operating.

“Spying on Pacific Island countries is not new. The question is, you know, the nature of the documents that they have and who gets access to it, and the concern in the case of the Pacific Islands in this particular case is because of the increasing geo-political competition that’s going on.”

The United States, Australia, and China have recently focused their attention on the Pacific Islands. Despite the fact that the combined population of the 15 independent Pacific Island nations is estimated to be 2.3 million, the Pacific region have now become the site of geopolitical competition, making spying in the region highly possible.