Pacific nations walk geopolitical tightrope over Ukraine war, as nuclear legacy looms

Children play on the beach in Mo’orea, in French Polynesia, where France carried out nearly 200 nuclear tests over three decades. The Pacific’s experience of nuclear testing has led to condemnation of Putin’s nuclear threats as ‘sheer madness’ by Pacific leaders. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

Some Pacific island nations have been left walking a geopolitical tightrope in their response to the war in Ukraine, as they try to balance regional alliances with both the west and China and Russia.

Comments by Russian president Vladimir Putin, which many have interpreted as thinly veiled threats about the potential use of nuclear weapons have also touched a nerve in a region long affected by the catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons testing by the US, France and Britain.