{"id":563889,"date":"2026-08-09T15:58:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563889\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T15:58:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:58:27","slug":"tuvalu-asked-china-to-look-for-missile-it-fired-on-ocean-floor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563889\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuvalu asked China to look for missile it fired on ocean floor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the missile splashing down close to Tuvalu, he said the country had no warning from China, unlike Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, which were given prior warning.<\/a> <\/p>\n

He asked reporters to imagine how they would feel if a missile had been fired in the direction of their countries without warning. <\/p>\n

Ministers at the forum, including New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, are debating the issue of whether to issue a joint statement on the missile and whether that statement should call out China directly or should use more generic language. <\/p>\n

Tuaga said he hoped a statement would be issued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be intimidated by any powers. It\u2019s not about what the Chinese had done, putting these dummy warheads; that\u2019s not the way we want to be treated. That\u2019s why we want to send a very strong statement from the Pacific as a collective.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"ForeignForeign Minister Winston Peters with his forum counterparts. Photo \/ Thomas Coughlan<\/p>\n

Tuaga said a statement would be reached \u201chopefully today\u201d. He would not name the \u201ccouple\u201d of countries that stood in the way. <\/p>\n

\u201cImagine it was a real one [warhead]… do we have to wait until we are hit by a real one and then issue a statement?<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this is the right time to issue a statement and deter any activities like that.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he felt supported by New Zealand. <\/p>\n

Before arriving at the meeting, Peters said whether the forum should compromise and issue a weak, non-specific statement on China\u2019s July ballistic missile test, if that is what is required to issue a statement at all, is the \u201c$64,000 question\u201d.<\/p>\n

The forum has been unable to issue a joint statement on the missile strike thanks to a dispute between countries with whom China has a strong relationship, preferring to issue a generic statement that did not single out China, and other countries in the forum, who wished for a more forthright and explicit condemnation of China specifically. <\/p>\n

Peters and the New Zealand Government have been pushing for the latter – and will continue to do so when Pacific Islands Forum ministers meet in Suva today.<\/p>\n

He met with his Australian counterpart, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, at Suva\u2019s Grand Pacific Hotel shortly after breakfast this morning ahead of the meeting and discussed his position on the strike. <\/p>\n

Peters said New Zealand would be pushing for a forthright statement, but was asked whether it might be better to issue a weak statement rather than no statement at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell that\u2019s the $64,000 question actually,\u201d he said, referencing an old American gameshow. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very delicate issue. We\u2019re going to be having an open dialogue today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about any potential roadblocks, he said that one country in particular might have a \u201cpredetermined view\u201d that it was not willing to shake.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne party is zooming in [to the meeting] and the question becomes what predetermined decision did they make before the conversation. Therefore, we can\u2019t determine at this point in time what might happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Peters did not name this country, but a list of attendees distributed before the meeting said Kiribati\u2019s foreign minister, President Taneti Maamau, would be attending the meeting virtually. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the missile splashing down close to Tuvalu, he said the country had no warning from China, unlike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[16751,665,13916,607,2841,273,26663,35838,2082,4756,266,5838,296,702,5832,116467,13457,42272,111,139,69,11599,90,4481,312,147,3045,61,120795,277447],"class_list":["post-563889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-affairs","tag-around","tag-asked","tag-china","tag-country","tag-environment","tag-fired","tag-floor","tag-for","tag-foreign","tag-government","tag-help","tag-into","tag-it","tag-july","tag-locating","tag-look","tag-missile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ocean","tag-on","tag-permanent","tag-says","tag-science","tag-secretary","tag-to","tag-tuvalu","tag-tuvalus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}