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SAMOA — King Charles has arrived in Samoa for a four-day state visit where he will preside for the first time over a gathering of Commonwealth presidents and prime ministers.
Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa greeted the King and Queen Camilla at Faleolo International Airport where a red carpet had been rolled out amid high winds and last-minute vacuum cleaning.
The Royal Samoan Police Band began playing as the couple alighted and met local officials.
The King and Queen, who ended their six-day tour of Australia on Tuesday, posted a message on social media saying they “couldn’t wait” to arrive in Samoa and experience the “warmth” of the country’s ancient traditions.
The tweet included a few words in Samoan which loosely translated as “looking forward to meeting the Samoan people”.
Samoa, a small country in the central South Pacific Ocean made up of an archipelago of nine islands, is hosting a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which has the theme “One Resilient Common Future”.
The King, as head of the Commonwealth, will formally open the event that will also be attended by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Charles deputised for Queen Elizabeth II during the last CHOGM staged by Rwanda in 2022, and in Samoa will be joined by Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
The route from the airport to Apia – Samoa’s capital – had been spruced up for the royal visit on Wednesday.
Each village along the road had adopted a country, with residents decorating their houses and adorning their lawns with the corresponding flags.
Flashing lights were put in trees, bushes and on roof tops, while car tyres were repurposed as flower pots and painted bright colours.
Climate change, a subject close to the King’s heart, is expected to top the agenda at the meeting held in a part of the world very vulnerable to rising sea levels.
While reparations are not officially on the table, the subject is likely to come up as this group of countries was brought together by British colonisation.
The UK government has said there will no official apology or reparations.
The King and Queen wrapped up the Australian leg of their tour on Tuesday after completing a long list of engagements.
Between them, on Tuesday alone the royal couple visited the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, a food bank, a social housing project, a literacy initiative and a community barbecue.
They met two leading cancer researchers and celebrated the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary.
An Australian arm of the King’s Foundation was officially launched, expanding a charity which promotes sustainability and provides training in traditional craft skills.
But it was not an entirely straightforward trip.
On Monday, an Australian senator defended heckling the King and accusing him of genocide after he addressed Parliament House, telling the BBC “he’s not of this land”.
Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal Australian woman, interrupted the ceremony in the capital Canberra by shouting for about a minute before she was escorted away by security.
After making claims of genocide against “our people”, she could be heard yelling: “This is not your land, you are not my King.”
But Aboriginal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan, who had earlier welcomed the King and Queen, said Thorpe’s protest was “disrespectful”, adding: “She does not speak for me.”
The ceremony concluded without any reference to the incident, and the royal couple proceeded to meet hundreds of people who had waited outside to greet them. — BBC
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