At the 80th United Nations General Assembly, Tonga’s Prime Minister stood before the world with a rare chance to make the plight of his nation impossible to ignore. What unfolded was a speech polished in form but too soft in substance. It echoed the themes of climate justice, multilateral reform and sustainable development. But in a hall where every leader speaks, Tonga’s message risked blending into the background.

The Prime Minister was right to call climate change an existential threat. But existential threats demand existential urgency. The speech leaned heavily on diplomatic niceties: “Tonga welcomes,” “Tonga supports.” These are the words of endorsement, not demand. For a country facing rising seas and repeated disasters, polite endorsement is not enough. This was the moment to challenge the world with sharper truths. Pledges have not saved villages from relocation, nor rebuilt homes washed away by cyclones.

The omission was even more glaring on another front: migration and deportation. Tonga is absorbing waves of citizens returned from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, often without reintegration support. Many arrive with criminal records, no jobs, and no pathways to stability. For a small island state with limited resources, this is not resettlement, it is destabilisation.

The Prime Minister had the rare chance to put this burden on the global agenda. In front of an international audience, he could have drawn attention to the imbalance between large countries making deportation decisions and small states left to deal with the fallout. By not raising it, Tonga’s reality was absent from a forum where it most needed to be heard. That silence was a missed opportunity to turn a national strain into an international responsibility.