Where to for the Pacific’s Ocean of Peace?

This article was first published by the East Asia Forum on 31 August 2026 │ Author: Sandra Tarte, University of the South Pacific

The Pacific Islands Forum annual leaders’ summit (30 August – 3 September 2026) began in Palau against the same backdrop of growing geopolitical pressures that catalysed the adoption of the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration by Pacific Islands Forum leaders in 2025. The Declaration was meant to guide and shape regional responses to growing strategic competition — yet as recent developments underline, what the Declaration stands for, and whose narrative of peace should prevail, remain deeply debated.

The Declaration, which originated as an initiative of Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and was adopted following extensive consultations and dialogue, aimed to demonstrate regional commitment to peace and cooperation at a pivotal moment in global affairs. But in a major challenge to shared understanding, and a significant departure from the original concept, the Ocean of Peace became affixed to the name of the defence treaty signed between Fiji and Australia in July 2026 and embedded in the companion Fiji–Australia Vuvale Union.

For Fiji’s current government, the Alliance and the Vuvale Union are considered necessary to advance development and defence interests and priorities, while also boosting Fiji’s role in the region. And for good measure, they promote Rabuka’s signature Ocean of Peace brand.

For Australia, the Ocean of Peace has become the declared framework for its steadily expanding range of bilateral defence agreements and treaties in the region. The Australian government has described the Declaration as a demonstration of ‘the significant strategic alignment between Fiji and Australia’. There have also been reported invitations to other Pacific Island states and New Zealand to join what could effectively become a regional Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace defence alliance.

By implication, this alignment could be seen as leading Fiji — and the Pacific Islands Forum more broadly — to ‘take sides’ in the intensifying geopolitical competition with China. This would contradict Rabuka’s own initial framing of the Ocean of Peace which was to insulate the region from great power competition. In response to this development, it’s been warned that the Ocean of Peace concept may be weaponised or co-opted to be part of this geopolitical competition, undermining its people-centred purpose.

A further challenge to a shared view of the meaning of the Ocean of Peace occurred in August 2026 when Pacific Islands Forum foreign ministers struggled to agree on a statement critical of China’s ballistic missile test over the Pacific. Some countries, including Australia and New Zealand, had wanted to single out China, while others preferred a broad-based statement ‘covering ballistic missile and other testing in the Pacific’. Pacific leaders will likely revisit this issue in Palau — whatever they decide will need to be framed as consistent with the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration.

Among other things, the Declaration reinforces the region’s opposition to nuclear threats and commits Pacific Islands Forum leaders to address nuclear legacies in the region. The Declaration also outlines the expectations of partners, calling on both state and non-state actors to respect sovereignty, support Pacific-led peace efforts, align all engagement with the Pacific’s vision for peace and take bold climate action in line with the Paris Agreement.

 

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