Pacific leaders at summit fail to reach unanimous condemnation of China’s ballistic missile launch

Pacific leaders meeting in Palau for their annual summit agreed this week to register collective "concern" over China's July launch of a ballistic missile into their waters — but the statement was not unanimous and stopped well short of a formal rebuke. The Associated Press reports that Nauru dissented from the clause, and Kiribati sent no representative at all to the leaders' retreat where such documents are normally settled by consensus.

The final text urged that notice be given for future tests but did not name China or criticize it beyond "concern." Views at the summit ranged from the host, Palau's president, who pressed for a unified voice to push Beijing on sovereignty and transparency, to New Zealand's prime minister, who described the outcome as a good place and played down the significance of Nauru's dissent.

The episode was widely seen as a measure of how much great-power rivalry has strained a forum of small island states whose strategic importance keeps growing. Nauru cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2024 to align with Beijing, while Palau remains among the few countries that still recognize Taiwan; an earlier attempt by member foreign ministers to issue a statement on the launch had already stalled.