HONOLULU, Hawaii -- U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo hosted the 6th Multilateral Maritime Virtual Key Leadership Engagement from the Pacific Fleet Headquarters in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, May 17, 2022.

Representatives from 16 nations participated in the engagement, including 6 heads of navies from countries in the India Ocean, Northeast Asia, Oceania and Southeast Asia regions.

The leaders focused on maritime mutual support in peacetime and enhancing cooperation between maritime forces.

Paparo emphasized the importance of maintaining close navy-to-navy relationships to facilitate effective coordination during multi-national responses to natural disasters and other humanitarian missions. He also spoke of Pacific Partnership 2022, U.S. Pacific Fleet’s annual mission to provide humanitarian civic support in cooperation with regional partners; and the work of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (the Seabees) who are consistently deployed across the region providing a range of construction and recovery support to our partners and friends.

The leaders acknowledged that our shared interests in maintaining the established international rules based order allows navies to build interoperability and trust to quickly come together and provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief or mutual support rapidly during times of crises.

The multinational maritime engagement program underscored Pacific Fleet’s commitment to strengthening alliances and partnership for an enduring free and open Indo-Pacific.