New Patrol Boats for Pacific Island Countries

Pacific Countries such as o Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Cook Islands will be receiving new patrol boats to replace the old ones from Australia.  These patrol boats are meant for the pacific countries to keep watch of their exclusive economic (EEZ) zone which extends 200 nautical miles from their shores.  

This program began in 1990 by Australia as an effort to keep the pacific region securely stable.  It has enabled the recipient countries to combat over-fishing within their waters and illegal migration.  So far the program has been very successful and the recipients are very grateful to Australia for engineering it.  

Federated States of Micronesia received 3 Patrol boats from the program since 1990 and they are still in very good condition, the 3 boats are sent for dry docking every 2 years.  In fact, they do not need to be replaced by new ones.  Instead if Australia give the fund they use to create the boats for operational cost, that will be more beneficial for all the patrol boat programs within each respective country in the pacific.