The Pacific Islands Forum says states can no longer rely on their isolation to shield them from cross-border crime such as terrorism.
The warning from the Forum's acting secretary-general Iosefa Maiava comes after a police raid on a Fiji methamphetamine laboratory last month.
Mr Maiava says instant communication and greater efficiencies in moving people, money and other commodities at a push of a button, means that people's lives may be touched, disturbed, even destroyed in ways which still seem surreal.
Mr Maiava was speaking at a training workshop in Suva for Pacific Island prosecutors, focused on prosecuting money laundering and terrorist financing.
He says the regional response to transnational organised crime is first to outlaw such activities, and secondly, allow the exchange of information between agencies and jurisdictions.
