At the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, the small island nation of Kiribati found itself omitted from the closing ceremony's roll of acknowledgments — a quiet but telling symbol of deeper fractures within a region navigating the competing gravitational pulls of great powers. Kiribati's president did not attend, its envoy sat unannounced, and alongside Nauru it softened a collective statement meant to condemn a Chinese missile test that flew over Pacific skies with barely two hours' warning to those below. The episode raises an enduring question about sovereignty and solidarity: when a small nat