Pacific Islands Forum presses China for missile-test notice as Nauru breaks ranks
Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Palau agreed to register concern over China's July intercontinental ballistic missile test, which crossed several member states without adequate warning, and asked any state testing such missiles to give at least 24 hours' notice. Nauru alone dissented from the clause, a rare break from the forum's usual consensus, while New Zealand's Christopher Luxon and Australia's Anthony Albanese pressed for a firmer statement than the one issued by August's foreign ministers' meeting.
Geopolitics··Midday
Leaders in Palau register concern and demand 24 hours' notice
Meeting at a leaders' retreat in Palau, the Pacific Islands Forum agreed on a joint statement voicing concern over China's recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, which crossed above several member states without adequate notice. The statement asked every state that tests such missiles to give at least 24 hours' warning, in line with international practice. Palau's president, Surangel Whipps Jr, announced the consensus after the retreat at his northern residence, and the closing ceremony was held in Koror. Nauru recorded its dissent from that passage, and Kiribati's representative stayed away from the meeting.[1]
Only Nauru dissents in a forum built on consensus
The Pacific Islands Forum's 18 members had largely agreed to the language, and in a rare move for the usually consensus-based body, Nauru was the only one to dissent from the missile-notice clause. Kiribati and Nauru had previously blocked an earlier draft statement in the immediate aftermath of Beijing's test, a push that Australia's prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had been advocating for. The forum's statement went further than its foreign ministers' meeting in August, which had discussed regional ballistic missile testing without singling out a specific test or setting a notice period.[2]
China calls the criticism sinister as Whipps defends the statement
New Zealand's prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said he did not want to see the firing of a nuclear missile into the nuclear-free Pacific treated as normal, and China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, called the intentions behind the statement sinister and said the effort would not succeed. Whipps rejected Beijing's separate description of Palau's reaction as sensationalized, saying the forum was simply stating the facts. Beijing had also warned of consequences over Taiwan's presence at the Palau meeting, and Kiribati's envoy, David Teaabo, recently returned from a posting in China, did not attend.[1], [2]
