'We want peace:’ Pacific island leaders seek to steer clear of geopolitics
- Admin
- Oct 10
- 4 min read
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
(Note: Due to a technical glitch, the text of this story in the print edition of our October 2025 issue was misprinted. The following is the correct text. We sincerely apologize to our print subscribers.)
At the 80th victory parade in Beijing on Sept. 3, China boasted its new, advanced military hardware, including a weapon dubbed the “Guam Killer.” The showpieces included aerial and underwater drones, hypersonic missiles, fighter jets and bombers. The VIP spectators during the 90-minute spectacle included Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
The U.S. military referred to these shows and performances as “messaging.” And the message was received. Loud and clear. It responded with minimal subtlety—renaming the Department of Defense the “Department of War.”
It won’t be outdone. The department hypes its own air, land and naval power, including the yet-to-be-delivered Guam missile defense system, its largest investment in the Pacific.
“Deterrence is our highest duty. Deterrence is the potential enemy's knowledge of capability and will. Our adversaries must know the cost of aggression outweighs any perceived gain of aggression,” said Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of the Indo-Pacific Command.
China’s actions, including increased war exercises, are “rehearsals for forced unification” with Taiwan as 2027 closes in. This flagged year is based on assumptions that Chinese President Xi Jinping will mark the communist regime's centennial anniversary by taking over Taiwan. Beijing insists that Taiwan is its own territory.
“If Chairman Xi wants to make that decision by 2027, it's in his tool bag to be able to make that decision,” said Mario DiBenedetto, Indo-Pacom’s intel director, during the Guam Defense Forum hosted by the Guam Economic Development Authority at the Dusit Thani Hotel last month. “This does not mean he can't choose to invade earlier. If he wants to make that decision by then, also, it's a window."
On the periphery, the Pacific islands watch the tension-filled contest— yet they are not mere spectators. They are constantly wooed by superpowers and unwittingly dragged into geopolitics. They are pawns, whether they like it or not.
In the case of the freely associated nations—Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia—the choice is not theirs to make. The Compact of Free Association picked the side for them, challenging their sovereignty. Their airspace, water and lands are part of the game of thrones.
With their landscapes and seascapes still littered with landmarks, wreckage, debris and contaminants from World War II that ended 80 years ago, Pacific island nations have expressed their refusal to participate in global frictions, declaring the region a peace zone and free from conflict.
The Pacific Islands Forum endorsed the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration during the 54th PIF Leadership Meeting in Honiara, Solomon Islands, last month. “The declaration promotes peace-building as an integral element of Pacific regionalism, and recognizes that sustainable development is essential for addressing the root causes of conflict, fostering lasting harmony and empowering communities to thrive,” Jeremiah Manele, Forum chair, said after the five-day leadership meeting.
Fiji’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, who introduced the Ocean of Peace manifesto at the leadership meeting in Rarotonga in 2023, said the document was “a signal that we seek a region in which strategic competition is managed, where stability is the touchstone of regional relationships and where coercion is eschewed.”
Small Pacific island states have become chessboard pieces in strategic competition in the region, where the U.S. builds a network of allies to counter China’s growing influence to the detriment of Taiwan. The island nations themselves, shaped by economic conditions, find themselves playing the musical chairs between Beijing and Taipei.
The peace declaration calls on “external actors to champion rules of responsible, peaceful, deconflicting behavior” and urges all regional leaders to “agree on a set of principles that embed peace as the cornerstone of our individual and collective policies.”
“The Ocean of Peace reflects my belief that a united region is a strong region: that when we speak with one voice, our power is magnified,” Rabuka said in his 2023 speech. “Peace is not something achieved through our police or security forces alone. It also requires families and communities, societies and nations that are built on the foundations of harmony, stability, satisfaction with life and freedom from want and fear.”
Pacific island leaders reiterated their desire for peace during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York during the last week of September.
“As we mark the 80th anniversary of the war’s end, we appeal to the international community to work with us in transforming this legacy of war into an opportunity for cooperation,” FSM President Wesley Simina said. “Micronesia may be small, but our voice, our vote, and our place within the international community are committed to choosing that we are, in fact, ‘better together.’"
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine deplored that, “at a time when international cooperation is in dire need, the very foundations of global order are now more uncertain than ever."
Meanwhile, the U.N. tends to fence-sit.
Heine reminded the world organization of its purpose. “The U.N. was founded on a commitment to never again tolerate aggression, to avoid the very kind of geopolitical tension, or even future open conflict between superpowers now openly foretold today, in my own Pacific islands region and far beyond,” she said.
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. took the U.N. to task for marginalizing Taiwan in favor of China.
“Today, as we reflect on that founding vision, let us remember the United Nations was not built for the powerful, but for all nations, large and small,” he said. “Eighty years ago, nations scarred by war came together to say never again. They built this organization on the belief that cooperation, not conflict, could guide humanity forward.”
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