Israel accepted as a Pacific Islands Forum partner after Sa'ar's Fiji visit

Israel has been accepted as a Forum Partner of the Pacific Islands Forum, the main regional organisation of Pacific island states, according to a press release from Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 20 October 2026. The ministry said the Forum's Secretary General, Baron Divavesi Waqa, conveyed the news to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar.

The ministry said the decision was taken when leaders of the Forum's member states met in Palau. It described the move as the outcome of a request Sa'ar formally submitted in person during a visit to Fiji in June of this year, when he held talks with Waqa.

What Forum Partner status means

The Pacific Islands Forum brings together governments from across the Pacific Ocean region. Alongside its members, it maintains relationships with outside countries that are not members but work with the organisation on specific issues. Partner status of this kind does not make Israel a member of the Forum.

The Foreign Ministry said that under its new standing, Israel will take part in what the Forum calls its Sectoral Partnership Stream, a track intended to concentrate cooperation on subjects of shared interest rather than broad political dialogue. The ministry listed the fields it expects to be central: water management, desalination, agriculture, adaptation to climate change, innovation and sustainable development. It framed these as areas where Israeli know-how can serve priorities set by the region.

According to the release, the arrangement will also produce a Partnership Action and Commitment Plan, known as a PACE Plan, drawn up with Israel. The ministry said the plan is meant to pin down concrete areas of joint work and to set up a way of tracking how implementation is going.

Israel's push into the Pacific

The ministry presented the Forum decision as part of a wider diplomatic effort. It said building ties with Pacific island nations is among Sa'ar's priorities as foreign minister.

As one step in that effort, the release said, Israel opened an embassy in Fiji earlier this year. That mission, according to the ministry, is also accredited to nine other Pacific island countries that it describes as friendly to Israel. For small island states, which often lack the resources to host many foreign missions, a single embassy covering several countries is a common diplomatic arrangement.

The ministry also noted that three of those countries, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Nauru, have opened embassies in Jerusalem during the current government's term. The location of embassies is a politically charged question in Israeli diplomacy. Israel regards Jerusalem as its capital, but most countries with diplomatic relations keep their embassies elsewhere, so decisions to open missions in the city are treated in Israel as notable gestures of support.

Why the region matters to Israel

Pacific island states each hold a vote in international bodies such as the United Nations, and several have long been counted by Israeli diplomats among the countries more sympathetic to Israel. The ministry's release does not make this argument directly, focusing instead on practical cooperation, but the embassy openings it highlights reflect the political dimension of the relationship.

The subjects named in the release, especially water, desalination and climate adaptation, are areas in which Israel has promoted its technology internationally for years, and they correspond to concerns that island governments frequently raise in regional forums.

What the reports do not say

This account rests on a single source, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's own announcement. No statement from the Pacific Islands Forum or from any of its member governments was included in the material, so the Forum's description of the decision, and any discussion among leaders before it was taken, is not known from these reports.

The release does not say when exactly the leaders' meeting in Palau took place, whether the decision was unanimous, or whether any member state raised objections. It does not name the nine additional countries served by the embassy in Fiji. It gives no timetable for drafting the PACE Plan, no budget for the cooperation, and no detail on which Israeli bodies will carry out the work. It also does not say how many other countries hold Forum Partner status.