APLN is delighted to welcome eight members to our senior network in June.

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark; serving Member of Parliament, former Shadow Foreign Minister and former Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in Australia, Tanya Plibersek MP, former Australian Member of Parliament and UN human rights lawyer, Melissa Parke; former New Zealand Member of Parliament, Ruth Dyson; New Zealand activist for disarmament, academic and former member of two UN Secretaries-General Advisory Boards on Disarmament Matters, Dr Kate Dewes; former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan and former Ambassador to Denmark, China and High Commissioner to India, Salman Bashir; former Australian Ambassador to the US, Japan, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Vietnam and Mexico, and former President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, John McCarthy and Masakatsu Ota, Senior/Editorial Writer at Kyodo News and a Visiting Professor of Waseda and Nagasaki Universities, Japan.

The Secretariat is working hard to expand our network across the Asia Pacific region, improve engagement and diversity on gender, race, age, and nationality. We recognise that we have much work to do but are working hard to do better. The wealth of expertise and experience of our newest network members increase APLN’s reach and engagement with governments across the region, increasing its policy impact and effectiveness.

The APLN network is comprised of political, military, diplomatic and thought leaders who work to address the security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region with a particular focus on nuclear non-proliferation, risk reduction and disarmament. APLN members contribute to security policy debates through writing articles, papers, and group statements, engaging in direct discussions with regional governments, and debating the issues in public and private events.