Standing up for yourself isn't all that big of a feat when you're a few small islands located in a rather unimportant part of the pacific ocean. As such, trying to get other nations to even be interested in your is a much bigger challenge than keeping away any unwanted interest. Standing up to big powers if you're located in a strategically important place like Iceland or smack next to Russia like us here in Finland might be impressive, but not when you're some unimportant islands in the pacific.
As for nuclear weapons, only reason I can see anyone in their right mind would even want to bring nukes anywhere near you is to do weapons tests like the ones the French used to do in Polynesia.