Editing Samoa (section)

===Military and police===
[[Military of Samoa|Samoa has no formal defence structure or regular armed forces]]. It has informal defence ties with [[New Zealand]], which is required to consider any request for assistance from Samoa under the bilateral [[New Zealand–Samoa relations#Treaty of Friendship|Treaty of Friendship]] of 1962.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20453/volume-453-I-6515-English.pdf |title=New Zealand and Western Samoa: Treaty of Friendship |publisher=United Nations |date=1 August 1962 |access-date=4 September 2021 |archive-date=4 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904024237/https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20453/volume-453-I-6515-English.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Officers of the national police force, the [[Samoa Police Service]], are regularly unarmed, but may be armed in exceptional circumstances with ministerial approval.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2017-03-14/samoa-new-approval-guidelines-for-arming-police-passed/ |title=Samoa: New Approval Guidelines for Arming Police Passed |publisher=Library of Congress |date=14 March 2017 |access-date=4 September 2021 |archive-date=4 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904024234/https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2017-03-14/samoa-new-approval-guidelines-for-arming-police-passed/ |url-status=live }}</ref> As of 2022 there are between 900 and 1,100 police officers in Samoa.