Taiwan to join 2026 Pacific Islands Forum after 2025 absence: MOFA

Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) Taiwan will join a major political gathering of Pacific island nations later this year in Palau, a senior diplomat said Tuesday, after it and other non-members of the bloc were barred from having any role in the annual event in 2025.

Michael Lin (林昭宏), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MOFA) Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Taiwan will once again join the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting to be held in Palau from Aug. 30 to Sept. 4.

Lin did not say what Taiwan's participation would entail, but it could involve holding side events at the forum as has been the case in previous years except for 2025, when Taiwan's representatives could not even go to the Solomon Islands, which hosted last year's forum.

The Palau government is focusing on enhancing regional good governance, development and resilience together with democratic partners at the 2026 summit, Lin said.

Taiwan will also work closely with Palau -- one of Taiwan's 12 formal diplomatic allies around the world -- to use "appropriate ways" to demonstrate the results of decades-long bilateral cooperation during the upcoming PIF summit, Lin said, without elaborating.

During a previous visit to Palau in December, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) pledged that Taiwan would help Palau build energy-efficient, environmentally friendly transport shuttles to carry delegates during the PIF meeting.

At the conclusion of the event, the shuttles will serve as transportation for Palau residents, Lin said at the time.

Though not a member of the PIF, Taiwan has been a "development partner" in PIF mechanisms since 1993. It usually holds the Taiwan/Republic of China-Forum Countries Dialogue and other side events alongside the PIF's annual summit in the host country.

Last year's PIF Leaders Meeting, held in the Solomon Islands, was attended only by the bloc's 18 member states, however.

Partner countries such as China, the U.S., and Taiwan did not participate after the host nation barred their attendance, citing an ongoing review of the forum's partnership arrangements.

Media reports have suggested for months that the Solomon Islands, which switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019, sought to block Taiwan's participation under pressure from Beijing.

China has poached several of Taiwan's allies in the Pacific as part of efforts to expand its presence in the region and isolate Taiwan from the international community.

Currently, only three PIF members -- the Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu -- have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.