‘Explain your intention:' Marshall Islands hits China’s missile test

By Pacific Island Times News Staff 

The Marshall Islands has denounced China’s submarine-launched ballistic missile test aimed at South Pacific, which has been established as a “peace zone.”

“In compliance with the Treaty of Rarotonga, we call on China—as we have called on every nuclear power before it—to explain its intentions in language as clear as the harm such tests can cause and to recognize that a region asking for peace is not a region inviting a demonstration of force,” the Marshallese government said in a press statement.

China on Monday test-launched a long-range ballistic missile, which carried a dummy warhead, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

“Although reportedly carrying a dummy warhead, no nation understands the weight of nuclear testing in Pacific waters better than ours,” the Marshallese government said.

The Marshall Islands still bears the consequences of the United States’ 67 nuclear detonations from 1946 to 1958.

 “We do not raise this history lightly, nor do we invoke it for rhetorical effect,” states the Marshal Islands, one Taiwan’s 12 remaining allies.

“We respectfully ask that China give due significant consideration that members of the Pacific Islands Forum placed on regional stability,” the Pacific island nation said.

In September last year, the Pacific Islands Forum endorsed the Pacific Islands Forum’s Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration, affirming the island region’s desire to remain a zone of peace, free from conflict and rivalry.

China is a State Party to the Protocols II and III of the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established the South Pacific as a nuclear-free zone.

“By ratifying these protocols in 1988, China committed not to test or threaten the use of nuclear weapons within this region. This was a clear deliberate pledge; one that carries enduring significance for Pacific nations,” the Marshall Islands said.

“Upholding the treaty’s intent requires not only adherence to its letter, but also, good faith in preserving the Pacific as an Ocean of Peace,” it added.

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