WELLINGTON/SUVA — New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says there is currently no immediate risk to Pacific leaders travelling to Palau for this year’s Pacific Islands Forum, but warned his government is prepared to step in if fuel pressures worsen.
Speaking to media on April 16, Luxon said: “At this point we don’t see any risk of that. There is no risk to any fuel disruption for us and that’s a good thing. But August is a long way away.” He stressed that, while no Pacific leaders have yet asked for help, New Zealand has plans on standby to support transport if soaring fuel costs or logistical constraints begin to impede travel to the forum.
The comments follow concerns raised across the region as the Middle East conflict pushes up global oil prices and creates knock-on supply-chain strains. For many smaller island states, getting to Palau is logistically complex: leaders from Sāmoa, Tonga and Niue often depend on limited international connections via hubs such as Guam, Japan and the Philippines. Palau’s president, Surangel Whipps Jr, who visited New Zealand last week, said he did not expect the situation to prevent attendance and expressed gratitude for offers of support from New Zealand, Australia and the United States to assist with pick-ups and transport if needed.
New Zealand has provided this kind of practical assistance before, flying leaders to the Forum meeting held in Tonga in 2024 and again to Honiara in September last year. Luxon’s assurances aim to allay immediate alarm while underlining that regional governments and partners remain alert to the potential for rapid deterioration in fuel availability or price that could disrupt international travel to the Forum’s leaders’ meeting.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters framed the upcoming Palau meetings, and associated gatherings in New Zealand, as a crucial moment for Pacific unity amid “a very challenging global strategic environment.” The government has not yet confirmed which ministers or leaders from New Zealand will attend the Palau Forum; New Zealand is also part of the Forum’s leadership group and will take its turn in the Forum’s annual rotation next year.
The latest developments come against a backdrop of warnings from Pacific officials and agencies about the impacts of higher global fuel prices. Fiji’s consumer watchdog and regional analysts have previously cautioned that fuel is a major import cost for island economies, and that price shocks reverberate quickly across transport, electricity and food supplies. Those vulnerabilities have been underscored by UN reporting this week linking the Middle East crisis to rising fuel prices and intermittent electricity pressures in parts of the Pacific.
The bulletin from Pacific news services also highlighted other region-wide risks being tackled in parallel: Tonga has launched a five-year multi-hazard strategy focused on risk communication and community engagement, while a new study has ranked the Hawaiian monk seal as the marine mammal most at risk of extinction from plastic pollution — a reminder that the Pacific’s security concerns extend beyond geopolitics and energy to environmental and climate-related threats. For now, leaders are expected to travel to Palau as planned, but governments across the region say they will continue to monitor fuel markets and stand ready to mobilise transport support if circumstances change.
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