King Charles and Queen Camilla touch down in Samoa: Monarch to be handed high chief title in touching gesture ahead of Commonwealth summit
The King and Queen landed in Samoa today for a four-day royal visit, where Charles will be presented with the title of ‘Chief Chief’ before a Commonwealth meeting.
The couple were greeted as they stepped off a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) plane at Faleolo Airport in the Polynesian country at 7pm local time (7am UK time).
Samoa’s Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mataafa was waiting to greet Charles and Camilla after they disembarked for the final leg of their overseas journey.
Camilla wore a pink embroidered tunic top and white Palazzo trousers from Anna Valentine, while Charles had a smart gray suit with a blue tie and handkerchief.
Lenatai Victor Tamapua, a Samoan chief and member of parliament, plans to present the king with the title of ‘Tui Taumeasina’ or paramount chief during a traditional welcome.
He will later lead Charles through a walkway through a mangrove reserve as he aims to highlight the impact of climate change on Pacific countries and their communities.
Mr Tamapua said: ‘The king tide today is about twice as big as it was twenty, thirty years ago, and that is affecting our country, and it is eating away at some of the areas that are so difficult for us to control, and people ( have to) go in, now inland.’
The King, who is the head of the Commonwealth, will chair a meeting of Commonwealth presidents and prime ministers in Samoa for the first time.
He will formally open the event, which will also be attended by Sir Keir Starmer. Foreign Minister David Lammy is also in Samoa and was waiting for the King at the airport.
Earlier, Charles and Camilla ended their six-day tour of Australia and posted a message under their names on social media shortly after their RAAF plane took off.
They said: ‘As we head towards Apia, we can’t wait to visit Samoa together for the first time and experience the warmth of age-old traditions with your remarkable people. Feiloa’i ma le manuia! -Charles R & Camilla R’
The tweet contained a few words in Samoan, loosely translated as “looking forward to meeting the Samoan people.”
Samoa is hosting a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) with the theme ‘One Resilient Common Future’.
The King will formally open the CHOGM after succeeding Queen Elizabeth II at the last meeting hosted by Rwanda in 2022.
It comes after Charles was accused of “genocide” by an Australian Indigenous senator at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday during the monarch’s six-day visit to Australia, which concluded yesterday.
The Australian royal tour was Charles’s inaugural visit to an overseas realm as sovereign, his first major overseas trip since being diagnosed with cancer, and his first visit by a British monarch to Australia in 13 years.
Charles is head of state in Australia, New Zealand and twelve other Commonwealth realms outside Britain, although the role is largely ceremonial.
More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small states, many of which are Pacific island nations facing the threat of rising sea levels.
CHOGM leaders are expected to make a statement on ocean protection, with climate change being a key topic of discussion.
Charles has campaigned on environmental issues throughout his life and in 2020 described climate change as the greatest threat humanity has faced.
Britain has said it will not raise the issue of reparations for historic transatlantic slavery, which Caribbean countries are calling for, at CHOGM, but is open to talks with leaders who want to discuss it.