APNIC and PITA renew MoU to strengthen cooperation in the Pacific

PITA President Phillip Henderson and APNIC Director General Jia Rong Low signed the updated MoU during PITA 30.

APNIC and the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA) have renewed their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), continuing a long-standing partnership that supports Internet development across the Pacific.

Signed at the PITA 30th Annual General Meeting, Business Forum and Expo (PITA 30) in the Cook Islands, the document sets out how APNIC and PITA will work together in practice. It covers cooperation on training and capacity building, regional meetings, research and information sharing, and facilitating the Pacific's participation in community-led initiatives such as Internet number policy development.

PITA President Phillip Henderson and APNIC Director General Jia Rong Low signed the updated agreement at PITA 30.

Renewal focuses on a resilient Pacific Internet

Speaking at the event, Jia Rong shared the purpose of renewing APNIC and PITA's partnership.

"This new MoU updates our agreement, which was last signed in 2002, and reflects our renewed shared commitment to partner with each other as the regional Internet environment continues to change."

He added that participation from the Pacific plays an important role in strengthening the global Internet, and appreciates PITA playing a key role in facilitating this.

"The Pacific community's participation in APNIC will contribute to the Internet ecosystem's resilience, which is not just resilience from an infrastructure perspective, but also resilience from a governance perspective."

Continuing a long-standing partnership

For more than two decades, APNIC has worked closely with PITA to support Internet development and technical capacity building across the Pacific.

The partnership has particularly focused on hands-on technical training delivered alongside PacNOG meetings, as well as engagement at PITA AGMs, business and strategy forums, and APNIC events.

Training has been delivered consistently on Internet operations, routing and BGP, network security, DNS, IPv6 deployment, and network management.

A new addition: Sub-Regional Forums

In addition to training, the MoU highlights collaboration on regional meetings and events, particularly in the delivery of an annual APNIC Sub-Regional Forum in partnership with PITA.

Sub-Regional Forums complement APNIC's broader regional meetings by providing space for discussions while helping to lower barriers to participation in APNIC processes.

By working together to deliver these forums, APNIC and PITA are able to connect regional experience more directly with technical knowledge, peer networks, and wider Internet coordination activities.

What's ahead for Pacific Members

For Members and stakeholders in the Pacific, the renewed MoU supports coordinated opportunities to engage with APNIC through familiar regional channels.

This includes upcoming activities such as the two Pacific Network Operators Group (PacNOG) events this year, PITA 31 in 2027, and other opportunities that support Pacific engagement in the wider global Internet community.

Through these events, APNIC and PITA will collaborate on training and skills development, information sharing on regional priorities, and participation in APNIC processes such as policy development, elections, and community discussions.

There will also be a continued focus on regional technical priorities, including IPv6 deployment and routing security initiatives such as RPKI.

With the involvement of APNIC and PITA Members, this partnership will not just benefit the Pacific region but also contribute to a stronger and more secure global Internet.

The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.