Pacific Minister Pat Conroy has brushed off questions about whether the Pacific’s premier regional body will issue a statement condemning China’s intercontinental ballistic missile test earlier this month.
A couple of days after the launch the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that members of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) were drafting a “very strong” joint statement criticising the test, suggesting that it would be issued soon.
But almost two weeks on, PIF has remained silent on the launch so far.
The main problem is that PIF works by consensus, which means it can only issue a statement once all its member nations have signed off on it.
And the ABC has been told that consensus remains elusive, with both Nauru and Kiribati (who both maintain very warm ties with Beijing right now) declining to back it.
Pat Conroy told journalists in Adelaide that Australia wouldn’t try to “dictate” to PIF on the issue.
“That’s a matter for the Pacific Islands Forum, and I invite you to ask the PIF Secretariat that question,” he said.
The ABC has done exactly that, but the PIF Secretariat declined to comment, saying only it would keep media updated on “any developments.”
Conroy also pointed out that several Pacific nations have already issued fairly strong statements condemning the launch, which is true.
PNG, Palau, Solomon Islands and multiple other Pacific nations have all criticised China’s actions, with the region responding much more forcibly to this test than it did to the China’s one in 2024.
