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17h ago

Pacific Islands Forum Opens in Palau With Major Leader Absences

Absences are reducing the forum's ability to reach consensus, risking stalled action on security, transnational drug trafficking, climate finance

A car moves past a sign displaying gasoline and diesel prices in U.S. dollars per gallon during the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Koror, Palau, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlotte Graham-McLay)
Flags of member states fly outside the summit venue for the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Koror, Palau, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlotte Graham-McLay)
Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr. addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 25, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters speaks to reporters at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Koror, Palau, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlotte Graham-McLay)

Overview

  • Leaders began gathering Monday in Koror, Palau, but at least six heads of government did not attend in person, including the prime ministers of Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Solomon Islands and the president of Kiribati.
  • The Solomon Islands prime minister returned home after a no-confidence motion was lodged against him, and several absent leaders sent deputies or senior officials to represent their countries.
  • The forum is grappling with fallout from China’s July submarine-launched ballistic missile test in Pacific waters, and members remain divided over issuing a joint condemnation.
  • Organisers have deployed about 110 police from Pacific states as a first large-scale regional policing exercise while leaders discuss a proposed maritime response to rising narco-trafficking and narco-submarine discoveries.
  • Host Palau and other island states are pressing for bigger climate finance and development support from partners such as Australia as security partnerships with Australia, the US and Taiwan reshape regional diplomacy.