How cross-regional collaboration helps Fiji to build climate-resilient cyber defence

It takes almost two days to go from Fiji to New York, and yet Fiji’s digital government chief Tupou'tuah Baravilala travels the distance to ensure the voices of small island nations like hers shape international cybersecurity diplomacy at the United Nations' (UN) highest global mechanism. 

She was speaking as a panellist in the High–Level Panel: The New UN Processes – Possibilities and Challenges at the Singapore International Cyber Week 2025 (SICW) moderated by Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA)’s Chief Executive, David Koh. 

Baravilala is the Director-General of Digital Government Transformation, Cybersecurity and Communication at the Ministry of Communications Republic of Fiji. 

Speaking to the press in a doorstop interview, Baravilala highlights the importance of cross-regional collaboration for small island developing states like Fiji. 
 
“At these global forums, threats mean different things to different nations, depending on what is faced by people on the ground. That’s why we’ve always come to saying that we cannot separate climate change from these [cyber] discussions because it’s a cross-cutting matter,” she says. 

Structuring cooperation based on shared needs 

With less than a million people scattered across some 300 islands, Fiji faces a significant challenge in global diplomacy.  

Baravilala highlights the value of cross-regional collaboration between ASEAN and Pacific nations to make a case for climate-resilient information and communications technology (ICT), which often gets overlooked in the global cyber strategy.  

As regions prone to natural disasters, ASEAN and the Pacific grapple with “unique vulnerabilities”, including having fewer resources and a smaller workforce to perform the same essential functions as their larger, more developed counterparts. 

One cannot discuss cybersecurity without first having “meaningful connectivity” she emphasises, highlighting connectivity as a shared challenge with many developing states in the ASEAN region. 

Despite the limitations, she says this shared context has forced both regions to be innovative and think “out of the box” to find solutions that work well. 

Announced by Singapore’s digital minister, Josephine Teo, at the 10th ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity (AMCC) in Singapore, the ASEAN-Singapore Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (ASCCE) in December will offer placements for Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) member states through the inaugural SG Cyber Leadership Programme. 

Within the UN, there are also open-ended working groups (OEWGs) that allow Fiji and other smaller states to clearly discuss these unique vulnerabilities, challenges and potential for collective learning from each other, she adds. 

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Not reinventing the wheel 

“The next question is, how do we bring what we’ve discussed in the global forums down to the regional level, then to our domestic frameworks?” Baravilala asks. 

She reiterates Minister Teo’s comment at the conference about how cross-regional learning allows countries to not reinvent the wheel and adopt best practices from every region.  

With Fiji “just starting its journey” in digital government and cybersecurity, PIF states could learn and embed ASEAN’s experiences in addressing “real problems” such as critical information infrastructure and talent development for the local context, she explains.  
 

She reflects how ASEAN has already implemented Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) at the regional level, which were initially only discussed at the global level.

Fiji and PIF can similarly learn from this to adopt similar measures in their own region, saving time and resources. 

Cyber CBMs are actions taken to reduce mistrust, misunderstanding, and the risk of conflict in cyberspace. 

Based on a statement delivered by Fiji on behalf of the PIF at one of the UN’s OEWGs in this July, cyber capacity building has been viewed as an important means to implement and sustain CBMs. 

Implementation as the focus for such cross-regional learnings 

Beyond success stories, Baravilala places great value in ones that don’t make the cut.  

This is because such learnings that might not have worked due to various contextual reasons still hold great ideas that could be taken onboard for Fiji. 

When collaborating on a regional level, “we’re not just talking about global policies but coming down to how we can implement these through different initiatives,” she elaborates. 

This includes detailed discussions on implementation, like the terms of reference for specific cybersecurity functions, and what the office would look like. 

While higher-level discussions allow Fiji to articulate a vague need for cybersecurity, cross-regional collaborations allow the country to gain tangible exposure to working models, she says. 

This knowledge allows them to identify and demand specific, tailored solutions for their government, effectively moving them from discussing a policy concept to actual implementation. 

Fiji on AI – Observing ASEAN as a model 

Fiji is also keenly observing the work in ASEAN, specifically on local-language large language models (LLMs) to make artificial intelligence (AI) more contextualised and relevant to local needs. 

Baravilala highlights the main concern regarding AI as less of the technology, but the data that feeds it. 

“The data that is feeding these LLMs, does it reflect our people and our contexts?” 

Much of the Pacific’s culture and history is passed down through oral tradition – through storytelling and drawings – rather than being written down, making it difficult to collect and input the kind of data needed to train global AI models accurately, she explains. 

Fiji is currently in the process of developing an AI strategy roadmap under its broader national digital strategy, and is currently trying to better understand the different components before committing resources. 

Baravilala shares that Fiji is party to the Budapest Convention and is involved in an ongoing AI mapping study that looks at both AI offences and how it can be used to support criminal justice and enforcement. 

The Budapest Convention is the first internationally binding treaty seeking to address cybercrimes by harmonising national laws and improving investigative techniques. 

As AI is still in its early stages in Fiji, the country’s immediate focus of its ASEAN partnership lies in addressing more fundamental challenges such as digital connectivity. 

Following the pandemic, the country experienced a rapid adoption of digital technologies, she says.  

This drove policy priorities toward ensuring more secure digital government services and greater digital inclusion for all, including remote communities and vulnerable populations like the elderly and persons with disabilities. 

“We need to be mindful of what’s right for our communities and really understand the key policy discussions we need to be having,” she emphasises, highlighting the deliberate pace of development, which recently saw Fiji issue 5G licences to operators. 

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