Five Country Ministerial 2025: communiqué and statement

Summary of the 2025 Five Country Ministerial meeting, and a statement on the common principles of return.

Introduction

We, the Home Affairs, Interior and Security Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States (the ‘Five Countries') convened in person under the United Kingdom's chairmanship, in London on September 8-9, 2025, for the Five Country Ministerial (FCM). The Five Countries reaffirm our enduring partnership and shared commitment to protecting our citizens, upholding the rule of law, and defending our values. In an increasingly complex global environment, we are united in our resolve to address the most pressing security challenges through collaboration, information sharing and action orientated approaches.

Border security: organised immigration crime (OIC) and enforcement and returns

The Five Countries reaffirm our shared commitment to operating efficient and modernised migration systems that harness the benefits of migration, safeguard our borders and protect our citizens, whilst also respecting our obligations under domestic and international law. High levels of illegal and irregular migration, document fraud, and visa abuse are contributing to unprecedented strains across migration and border systems and erodes public confidence in our border control and management. We acknowledge the need for a whole-of-route approach, to more effectively manage these challenges upstream before they reach our borders, including by leveraging advancements in technology, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), wherever possible.  Furthermore, taking a comprehensive approach is crucial to maximising the impact of our actions, and therefore, we will continue to work across government and with our national and international partners in this shared ambition.

Transnational organised criminal groups are exploiting vulnerable individuals and compromising our national and border security by facilitating migrant smuggling. They perpetrate their crimes through varying and evolving modus operandi including the exploitation of online platforms to advertise and facilitate migrant smuggling services. The online environment should be safe and secure for everyone and should not be permissive for immigration crimes. We are united in our resolve to strengthen our collective efforts to deny, degrade, and disrupt these criminal networks that span borders and threaten our security. We will continue to act decisively, employing the full range of policy levers and law enforcement tools to identify, investigate, and prosecute those responsible, and to disrupt their illicit operations. We recognise the work being carried out in different international fora on migrant smuggling and will seek to ensure complementarity of our Five Country efforts.

The Five Countries recognise the challenges and pressures brought about by visa abuse and document fraud. We will continue to seek opportunities to pursue coordinated activities to stem the abuse and strengthen the integrity of our migration and border systems. 

Finally for those individuals who have no legal basis to remain in our countries, the Five Countries will pursue their legal, safe, and orderly removal in accordance with our national laws and international obligations. In support of this common objective and acknowledging that the ability for our governments to effect removals is critical to maintaining order and public confidence in our systems, we have, by way of separate statement, set out agreed common principles of removals. Through this aligned and principles-based approach to partnership, underpinned by robust and sustained effort, we can protect the vulnerable and secure our borders.

Border security: illegal high harm drugs

We recognise that the increase in the production, trafficking and potency of illegal high harm drugs, including illegal synthetic opioids and their precursor chemicals, presents a clear, serious, and immediate threat to the Five Countries. The Five Countries are committed to coordinated international actions to tackle rapidly evolving and established illegal drug markets to help ensure the safety and health of our communities, and integrity of our economies.

The Five Countries will intensify joint efforts to detect and disrupt the production, trafficking, and distribution of illegal synthetic opioids and their precursor chemicals. We will enhance our capabilities at the border to identify and interdict illegal synthetic drugs, including synthetic opioids, and locate their production sources. Leveraging our advanced technologies and intelligence sharing we pledge to disrupt and degrade the capabilities of organised crime groups that enable illegal drug production and trafficking and other serious crimes, including through online platforms.

The Five Countries will increase international efforts to target the diversion and misuse of precursor chemicals used in the illegal production of synthetic drugs. To prevent the production and export of these dangerous substances for the illicit market the Five will encourage drug and chemical producing countries to ensure robust legislation and regulations are in place, and enforced, including across the pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing sectors.

Together, the Five Countries will drive a coordinated, agile, and forward-looking response to combat global production and flows of illegal high harm drugs. Through strengthened collaboration, we will protect our communities and uphold the security and resilience of our nations.

Child sexual exploitation and abuse

The Five Countries reaffirm our unwavering commitment to coordinate policy, engagement, and operational efforts to proactively address all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse, pursue and prevent offenders, and ensure victims and survivors receive the justice and support they need. A comprehensive international and cross-sector approach is essential to strengthen responses to evolving harms, including the rise of AI-generated child sexual abuse material and financially motivated sexual extortion, livestreaming, and grooming.

The Five Countries will ensure our responses are agile and recognise the impacts for victims and survivors. We will continue to engage with victims and survivors to inform our efforts, while also amplifying the work of advocates and support organisations. We pay tribute to the leadership and work of all of those who have engaged with us to date and all those who continue to advocate for change across the globe.

We also recognise the collaborative and operational efforts between our law enforcement, border and intelligence agencies to pursue individual and group-based perpetrators, identify victims, and safeguard children across our borders. 

However, significant work remains. We recognise baseline expectations of industry set by the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, and new legal regulatory frameworks across international jurisdictions. We stress the importance of all sectors, including the tech and financial sector, civil society, and intergovernmental organisations, and governments partnering to utilise all levers available to prioritise child safety and innovation to ensure a robust response to this horrific crime.

We have a responsibility to protect children and will continue to prioritise and lead globally on a coordinated and robust response to preventing and combatting child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Counter-terrorism

The Five Countries remain steadfast in our commitment to countering terrorism, both online and offline. We recognise that the threat landscape continues to evolve, and that a united, intelligence-led response is essential. We will continue to share information to ensure a common understanding of the transnational threat and to enable a coordinated and effective response shared across the Five.

We acknowledge that the nature of emerging technologies, including AI, present both risks and opportunities. While such technologies can be exploited by terrorists, they also offer powerful tools to enhance our counter-terrorism and public safety capabilities.

Ensuring the safety and security of our citizens is the first duty of government. We are committed to working in close consultation with each other, and in partnership with technology companies, to enable the investigation, prevention, and prosecution of the most serious crimes. We recognise the important role of private and secure communication technologies in protecting our citizens' privacy. We will continue to collaborate to maintain our shared understanding of the evolving implications of these technologies for law enforcement.

Together, we will continue to advance our shared counter-terrorism objectives through close cooperation, innovation, and a steadfast commitment to the rule of law.

Countering foreign interference

We reaffirm our shared commitment to defending national sovereignty and protecting the rights and freedoms of our citizens from foreign interference.

We recognise Transnational Repression (TNR) as a hostile form of foreign interference, in which regimes and their proxies seek to intimidate, harass, harm, or coerce individuals and communities beyond their own borders. Such actions pose a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty and endanger those targeted.

A foreign state conducting TNR often targets its dissidents, journalists, religious minorities, and members of diaspora communities in our respective nations. We are increasingly aware of the threat posed by this activity and are united in our resolve to counter it. We continue to see persistent and frequent targeting of individuals who play a vital role in our governments by state-sponsored cyber actors. Such activity is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

We welcome the recent statements made by world leaders at the G7 Leaders' Summit addressing TNR and are committed to taking coordinated action to deter these threats where necessary and to strengthening the resilience of those most at risk.

We also addressed the increasing use of proxies by foreign regimes to carry out foreign interference operations on their behalf and reaffirmed our commitment to standing united in defence of our sovereignty and to strengthening our ability to detect, deter, and respond decisively to these threats.

Through enhanced cooperation, intelligence sharing, and coordinated action, the Five Countries will continue to defend our national security, safeguard our communities from foreign threats, and uphold the rule of law and our sovereignty.

Conclusion

Across all priority areas, the Five Countries are demonstrating collective leadership and unity. We are committed to practical cooperation and shared actions that reinforces our cohesion and strengthens our collective security. Together, we will continue to protect our people, uphold our values, and shape a safer, more resilient future.