From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 1, March 2000.

Colonel Fetu’utolu Tupou, retired after 23 years as the Commander of the Tonga Defence Services at the end of March and will become the new Tongan High Commissioner to London  on May 1.

During the past 30 years he has seen the development of the TDS, “from a 30-member regular force in 1970 to a 500 strong force today.”

Fetu’utolu said that the unique  structure of the Tonga Defence Services, with one unified command of its three combat forces, the Navy, the Land Force and an Air Wing, is believed to be the most suitable for Tonga, with vast territorial waters, a small land area, small population and limited resources.

He said that further development of the TDS would be in the direction of utilising the new technology, while stabilising the force at around 500.

Now that Tonga was a member of the UN, he said there may be some changes. “Our membership in the UN entails certain commitments, which decide the size of our force and our security policy, but any change in our policy has to be initiated by us. It depends on what we can afford and are capable of implementing.

Fetu’utolu said he was confident that development would continue according to plan. Military training between Tonga and other countries had been planned and confirmed.

“We have military training programs with the United Kingdom, France, the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and with Australia and New Zealand.  At the end of March an advance party from the Second Royal Regiment of the British Army will be here for the Exercise Pacific Kuri 2000. That is the first bilateral exercise this year, and it is significant because of the reinstating of our military training with the British. Following that will be our military training with France in July, and with the Americans during August-September, to be followed by Australia and New Zealand. All these are part of our co-operative security arrangement with these countries, which is going from strength to strength,” he said. “The other important factor is that our combat forces are already in place, the Navy at Touliki, the land force at Taliai Camp, and the Air Wing.”

Fetu’utolu said this was the first British army TDS training exercise in many years. “Since they withdrew from South East Asia. But they are trying to come back to the region and it proves that the world is getting smaller, and strategically they are looking into the future.”

He did not think that the current stand off between Taiwan and China would result in war.

“My personal view is that China would not like to see any set back in the development of both China and Taiwan, and they are conscious that a confrontation between them may also hamper development in the region.”

Regarding the ethnic strife in various Pacific island states, Fetu’utolu said they were not as active as other trouble spots in the world.

“The question is, when will it end? If we look at what is happening in the Solomons, between Malaita and Guadalcanal, the problems in Bougainville, East Timor, and between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia over Irian Jaya, the one thing that is certain is that these problems are escalating,” he said.

“There are also other problems that we should take note of such as natural disasters, and environmental problems, and the areas where we have to enforce national laws in territorial waters. The other concern is trans-national crimes. Because a security  force usually has good  communication facilities, they are also called on to deal with that problem,” he said.