THE Republic of the Marshall Islands has sharply condemned China’s reported submarine-launched missile test in the South Pacific, saying the region cannot be treated as a venue for military signalling.
A statement from the office of President Hilda Heine said Pacific nations knew too well the cost of nuclear testing.
The powerful statement said the July 6 launch, which China has described as routine and carrying a dummy warhead, struck a raw nerve in a region scarred by decades of nuclear experimentation.
“No nation understands the weight of nuclear testing in Pacific waters better than ours,” the statement said, noting that Marshall Islanders “bore the cost of 67 nuclear detonations” during 12 years of testing and “live with” the consequences still.
The statement rejected Beijing’s attempt to downplay the launch.
China had called the test “routine” and asked observers “not to overinterpret,” the Marshall Islands said, urging Beijing instead to recognise “that a region asking for peace is not a region inviting a demonstration of force.”
The government also invoked the Pacific Islands Forum’s Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration, endorsed in September 2025, saying Pacific leaders had already made clear their commitment to keep the region free from “conflict and rivalry.”
China is a party to Protocols II and III of the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established the South Pacific as a nuclear-free zone, the statement said.
By ratifying the protocols in 1988, Beijing committed not to test or threaten the use of nuclear weapons in the region.
“Upholding the Treaty’s intent requires not only adherence to its letter, but also good faith in preserving the Pacific as an Ocean of Peace,” the statement said.
The Marshall Islands said it was calling on China “as we have called on every nuclear power before it” to explain its intentions clearly and to respect the security concerns of Pacific states.
“We are a small nation,” the statement said.
“We do not raise this history lightly, nor do we invoke it for rhetorical effect.”
