Test exposes limits of Pacific leaders' ambition to make region 'Ocean of Peace'The headquarters for the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva, Fiji, August 7, 2026. More than a month after the test, Pacific Islands foreign ministers were unable to agree on a collective statement condemning Beijing's missile test, despite individual leaders expressing alarm, publicly and privately, about militarisation of the region. David Peebles of the Australian National University's Pacific Security College said Pacific countries had long resisted having peace and security defined by outside powers and their competing Indo-Pacific strategies. Yet by the end of the one-day meeting, no unified statement in response to the missile test had emerged. Pacific leaders will meet in Palau in three weeks for the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting, where the missile test and regional unity are expected to return to the agenda.