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The 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting was held in Palau from 30 August to 4 September 2026 under the theme 'Building Economies: Life. Action. Unity.'
The meeting was marked by diminished leadership attendance, with about a third of leaders absent, and by pressure from China over Taiwan's participation.
Taiwan attended after being kept out in 2025; China warned of consequences after Taipei's envoys took part in a ceremonial event.
The PIF is the premier political grouping of the Pacific, with 18 members, founded in August 1971 at Wellington as the South Pacific Forum and renamed in 2000.
India engages the grouping through the Post-Forum Dialogue, alongside the US, EU, China and Japan.
Premier political and intergovernmental grouping of Oceania, coordinating regional positions on climate, fisheries, ocean governance, trade and security
Administrative arm implementing Forum decisions and servicing its meetings
South Pacific Forum founded at Wellington, New Zealand.
Renamed the Pacific Islands Forum to reflect its North and South Pacific membership.
Taiwan is kept out of the leaders' meeting amid Chinese objections.
55th Leaders Meeting held in Palau; Taiwan attends and China warns of consequences.
Palau is an archipelago in the western Pacific, north of the equator in Micronesia. Forum membership spans Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, from Papua New Guinea in the west to the Cook Islands in the east, with the Secretariat at Suva in Fiji.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations - regional groupings, the Indo-Pacific, and effect of policies of developed and developing countries on India
General Awareness > International Organisations
The Forum's guiding vision, treating the Pacific islands and their ocean as a single connected region with a shared voice.
The Forum's structured ministerial channel for engaging external partners such as India, the US, the EU, China and Japan.
The Forum instrument that provides the mandate for regional security responses and stabilisation missions.