King Charles III and Queen Camilla have landed in Samoa for a visit during which he will be offered the title of high chief and attend a summit of Commonwealth nations leaders.
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa welcomed the royal couple on the runway, along with other dignitaries, before a band played Britain’s national anthem, ‘God Save the King’.
King Charles then inspected a guard of honour drawn from Samoan police. The country has no armed forces.
The king and queen were greeted by Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa at Faleolo International Airport. (Reuters: Aaron Chown)
The monarch is the symbolic head of the Commonwealth, a group of 56 countries with roots in the British empire.
His first visit to Samoa coincides with the annual Commonwealth heads of government meeting and follows his six-day visit to Australia.
King Charles met with Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa privately at the aiport shortly after arriving. (Reuters: Aaron Chown)
Small states form more than half the members of the grouping, many of them Pacific Island nations grappling with the threat of rising sea levels caused by climate change.
The leaders are expected to make a declaration on protecting the ocean, with climate change a key topic for discussion.
Britain has said it will not bring the issue of reparations for historical transatlantic slavery, demanded by Caribbean countries, to the table at CHOGM, but is open to engage with leaders who want to discuss it.
King Charles high chief-to-be
King Charles will also be offered the title of high chief during his visit and will be shown the impact of rising sea levels in the Pacific Island nation.
Lenatai Victor Tamapua, a Samoan chief and member of parliament, said he planned to offer the title of ‘Tui Taumeasina’ to the monarch during a traditional ceremonial welcome to Charles and Queen Camilla on Thursday.
Samoans lined the streets bearing flags, waiting to welcome the royals to the village of Siumu. (AP: Rick Rycroft)
He will later lead Charles along a walkway on a mangrove reserve, highlighting the impact of climate change on Pacific nations and their communities.
“The king tide today is about twice what it was 20, 30 years ago,” Tamapua said.
“And that is affecting our land, and it’s eating away at some of the areas that are so hard for us to control, and people (have to) move inwards, inland now.”
Samoan authorities pulled out all stops ahead of the king’s arrival for CHOGM. (Reuters: Aaron Chown)
Charles has spent a lifetime campaigning on environmental issues and in 2020 described global warming and climate change as the greatest threat that humanity has faced.
The offer of the title of high chief for Charles comes after he was accused of “genocide” by Australian Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.
The royal tour of Australia was Charles’s inaugural visit to an overseas realm as sovereign, his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer, and the country’s first visit by a British monarch in 13 years.
Reuters/ABC