The first half of 2026 saw communities across the Asia Pacific region continue to collaborate on shared Internet challenges and opportunities. From strengthening routing security in the Pacific and supporting emerging CERT communities, to developing future trainers and advancing Internet governance discussions, the region remained focused on building a more resilient, secure, and well-connected Internet.
Here are some highlights of how APNIC worked with Members, partners, and stakeholders from January to June 2026.
Bringing APNIC closer to regional Members
APNIC’s Sub-Regional Forums (SRFs) create opportunities for more focused engagement with Members across the Asia Pacific. Delivered in partnership with established regional events and organizations, SRFs provide a platform for Members to discuss local priorities, exchange operational experience, and engage directly with APNIC leadership and staff. Feedback and insights gathered through these forums help inform APNIC’s activities while strengthening relationships across the community.
The inaugural Oceania SRF was delivered in partnership with PITA during the 30th PITA AGM Business Forum and Expo. By bringing the forum into an established regional gathering, APNIC was able to engage directly with Pacific telecommunications leaders, network operators, technical experts, and community stakeholders.
Formal sessions, side meetings, and informal discussions throughout the week provided valuable opportunities for two-way engagement and knowledge sharing. A key outcome was the Pacific community’s shared commitment to improving routing security through increased adoption of Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs) and Route Origin Validation (ROV), with participants identifying PITA 31 as a milestone for reviewing progress.
The event also featured the public signing of an updated Memorandum of Understanding between PITA and APNIC, reaffirming the organizations’ long-standing partnership and commitment to technical capacity building, community development, and regional collaboration.
Insights from this event showed how SRFs can strengthen regional collaboration, support Internet development, and ensure Member perspectives help shape APNIC’s future priorities and activities.
CERT capacity building strengthens regional resilience
There is growing momentum in the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) communities for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Pakistan, where local stakeholders are working to strengthen national capabilities and connect more closely with the global cybersecurity ecosystem.
In the Solomon Islands, Women in ICT Solomon Islands (WITSI), SI-CERT, government agencies, critical infrastructure operators, and community participants came together through CyberQuest Honiara, with sessions facilitated by APNIC’s Adli Wahid, to build practical skills and strengthen local networks. The Capture the Flag competition and tabletop exercise provided valuable opportunities for participants to learn, collaborate, and discuss cybersecurity challenges in a local context.
Strong interest in making CyberQuest Honiara a recurring event reflects the community’s commitment to growing local cybersecurity capability. The event brought together stakeholders from across the ecosystem to share experiences, build connections, and explore opportunities for ongoing collaboration.
In Vanuatu, APNIC supported the CERT Vanuatu Cyber Security Bootcamp, held as part of the annual Digital Week 2026 coordinated by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), by providing the Capture the Flag (CTF) platform, developing competition challenges, and delivering a remote presentation on cyber incident investigation.
The event engaged final-year secondary and tertiary students from schools and colleges in the Port Vila area, providing practical exposure to cybersecurity concepts while supporting the development of future cybersecurity professionals.
In Pakistan, the National CERT (PKCERT) continues to build its role as a focal point for cybersecurity coordination, capacity development, and stakeholder engagement across the region. In collaboration with APNIC, PKCERT strengthened its engagement (1,2,3) with the global incident response community and is now a member of both APCERT and FIRST.
These milestones enhance Pakistan’s ability to collaborate with regional and international cybersecurity partners, share threat intelligence, adopt global best practices, and strengthen national cyber resilience through broader engagement with the worldwide CERT community. APNIC’s engagements with the local CERT and security leaders also highlighted opportunities to expand cybersecurity activities through training, community events, and regional outreach beyond Islamabad. A recurring theme across these engagements was the importance of trusted local leadership, strong community partnerships, and accessible capacity-building opportunities to support the growth of resilient cybersecurity ecosystems.
These efforts demonstrate how local communities, supported by regional and international collaboration, are creating stronger foundations for cybersecurity awareness, skills development, and cooperation.
Understanding Member priorities through visits and gatherings
APNIC’s Members and stakeholders continue to play a critical role in shaping the future of the Internet number registry system and the services that support it. Communities across the Asia Pacific region continue to share feedback on their operational challenges, priorities, and expectations for APNIC services and support.
APNIC’s engagements with major Australian operators, industry bodies, and government stakeholders earlier in the year showed that many large networks now operate in highly regulated environments where resilience, risk management, automation, and compliance are becoming increasingly important considerations alongside traditional technical issues. Members also emphasized the importance of practical tools, authoritative data, policy leadership, and capacity building approaches that strengthen organizational capability rather than solely individual technical skills. These discussions are providing valuable community-led perspectives on how the Internet ecosystem can evolve to remain secure, stable, and fit for purpose.
At the same time, community-driven events continue to provide opportunities for Members to share experiences, learn from peers, and engage directly with APNIC and one another. The APNIC Member Gathering and RPKI tutorial held alongside the 10th BKNIX Peering Forum (BPF) and ThaiNOG 8 brought together Members from across Thailand to discuss Internet Resource Management, IPv6, RPKI, routing security, and operational best practices.
Feedback from the event highlighted strong interest in practical deployment guidance, operational challenges, and emerging technologies. Together, these engagements demonstrate an active and engaged community that is helping to identify challenges, share solutions, and shape the priorities needed to support a resilient and well-connected Internet across the region
Building capacity through Train-the-trainer initiatives
APNIC Academy development activities focused on expanding training delivery through Train-the-trainer initiatives, which are designed to support the sustainability and scalability of technical capacity development across the region. By developing local trainers, the program strengthens long-term capability. It enables broader delivery of both core curriculum topics, such as Internet Routing, Security, and IPv6 Deployment, and optional topics, such as Network Automation and Network Management and Monitoring (NMM), which will be retired from the curriculum at the end of 2026.
APNIC Academy partnered with the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) and Xiong’an in China to deliver IPv6 deployment workshops to selected cohorts of future trainers. RPKI workshops with these partners are planned for later this year. These strategic partnerships are helping build a pipeline of qualified trainers who can support ongoing technical development within their communities.
More APNIC Academy Train-the-trainer activities and partnerships are planned for the remainder of the year to further extend the program’s reach and impact.
Advancing Internet governance discussions
The next version of the RIR Governance Document progressed with two status reports published in the first half of 2026 in February and May. The reports outlined the Address Supporting Organization Address Council’s (ASO AC) progress in responding to community feedback, including issues still under discussion, areas where drafting work is continuing, and decisions already reached.
At ICANN 85, the ASO AC also engaged with the ICANN community on key issues for the next version of the document, including ongoing accountability, audits, service continuity, potential derecognition processes, regional flexibility, and operational resilience. These discussions are summarized in this report, including the ASO AC’s response to questions from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC).
Version 3 of the document will be published for the RIR and ICANN communities later in 2026.
Supporting open policy development
The APNIC 61 Open Policy Meeting (OPM) took place on 11 February 2026 during the APNIC 61 conference in Jakarta, Indonesia. Two policy proposals were discussed, but only one policy proposal called for consensus that was not reached and returned to the mailing list.
Policies discussed:
- Prop-164: Allocations of IPv6 Resources longer than a /32 with a nibble boundary alignment — Aims to help smaller operators and businesses request address blocks that match their operational needs, avoiding unnecessary over-allocation that can lead to inaccurate whois records.
- Prop-166: Increase to maximum IPv4 delegations — Seeks to reduce challenges for smaller operators who rely on IPv4 while transitioning to IPv6.
The next OPM will be held on 10 September 2026 at APNIC 62 in Mumbai, with a submission deadline of 7 August 2026. Policy development is open to all and is a key way to have your say on IP address management in the region.
To strengthen regional engagement in the Policy Development Process (PDP), APNIC delivered online presentations at APIGA events in Indonesia and the Philippines, and participated in a panel discussion at Taiwan Internet Week as part of the APNIC-TWNIC Open Policy Meeting focusing on community policy and operational trust.
Looking ahead
As the second half of 2026 progresses, APNIC will continue working with Members, partners, and stakeholders to strengthen technical capacity, support community-led development, and advance a stable, secure, and open Internet across the Asia Pacific.
Stay informed about APNIC activities by subscribing to the APNIC Blog and Orbit, joining our WhatsApp community, and exploring local training opportunities and events across the Asia Pacific region.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.