The world's largest naval military warfare exercises are just over halfway through their five weeks of activity in and around Hawaiʻi.
Military personnel from over 30 nations are raking in part in the Rim of the Pacific operations — also known as RIMPAC.
Australia has been a part of RIMPAC for over 50 years. But regional security ties are just part of the unique relationship Australia has with both the United States and Hawaiʻi in particular.
Australia's consul general in Honolulu, Greg Wilcock, spoke with HPR about the deeper connections between the two nations.
Wilcock also discussed the ongoing diplomatic work happening between Australia and the Pacific Islands and Australia's recent ban on social media for those under 16.
Interview Highlights
On the military ties between Australia and Hawaiʻi
GREG WILCOCK: We're both two ocean countries. We both have still-living memory of World War II and our vulnerabilities at that time. Look from Australia's vantage at that point. We were on the receiving end of a Japanese attack not long after Pearl Harbor. Our alliance — though we didn't sign it until a number of years later — was forged in that sort of heat, so we've known each other for a very long time. We're coming up this year to the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS Alliance, the alliance that we, New Zealand and the United States, signed in San Francisco in 1951. And for 75 years we've been laying down these habits, these relationships, these links between our institutions on national security.
So it's a mature relationship, and one of the signs of that, of course, is that we have been in RIMPAC with you since 1971. We're one of the founding navies in that exercise, and we've participated in every RIMPAC since, and that's because we know, like the United States, in our DNA, how important maritime security is to us, to you, and to stability in this part of the world and and the world over.
On the Pacific Islands and China
WILCOCK: When you stand on the east coast of Australia, or if you stand on the north coast of Australia, you're an hour or two flight away from any given Pacific island neighbor. … So the neighborhood is right there and present with us, and our security, our future, our economies — they're all intertwined with each other. So, for us to go these extra steps and strike, for example, defense treaties with Papua New Guinea and Fiji is a natural progression. But it's also a demonstration of how the stakes are rising in the region and how the risks are growing. …
China is active in the region. It is natural for China to have an activist foreign policy in the region, and so on. We don't begrudge that, but Australia, this is our neighborhood. It's where we live. As I said, we're a member of the Pacific Islands Forum alongside just about every other Pacific Island jurisdiction, and we therefore take very seriously our role to get in there and be active ourselves.
On Australia's social media ban for children
WILCOCK: I have three kids who have more than their share of screen time, and so the parents of Australia actually galvanized themselves to put to the government what they saw as the serious harm that social media can do. And like any other country, we've had a number of heartbreaking cases where, you know, kids have hurt themselves or taken their own lives because of the harm they've experienced on social media.
So the parents of Australia have spoken up, and it's not that we as parents are asking the government to do the parenting for us. It's that the government is working with us to create the breathing room that we think we need to raise our kids, to let kids be kids, and to learn how to conduct themselves and to learn how to participate online.
This story aired on The Conversation on July 17, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
