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King Charles III and Queen Camilla landed in Samoa for a three-day state visit.
“We can’t wait to visit Samoa… and experience the warmth of ancient traditions,” the couple shared on social media before departing Australia.
Samoa’s prime minister, Afioga Fiame Naomi Mataafa, will greet the royals upon their arrival. The trip coincides with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm), where the King will preside over discussions on climate change, a cause he has long championed.
Charles’ and Camilla’s six-day tour to Australia was marred by protests. An Indigenous activist, Wayne Wharton, was arrested after labelling the King “a king of thieves” over colonial injustices.
This came after a visit to the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) in Sydney, where the King met with First Nations elders. One told him their goal was “sovereignty” in an apparent reference to a protest the previous day.
On Monday, the monarch was accused of “genocide” against Australia’s First Nations by Senator Lidia Thorpe who told him, “You are not my King.”
King Charles greeted by ads urging action on plastic pollution at Commonwealth Meeting
As King Charles III arrived in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, he and other delegates were met with striking ads calling for action on plastic pollution, reported 9 News.
The campaign, led by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation, features a confronting image of a child vomiting plastic, displayed prominently at Samoa’s Faleolo International Airport.
Timed to coincide with the British monarch’s arrival, the campaign pushes for a global plastics treaty to be placed on the meeting’s agenda.
“A global plastics treaty is not a nice-to-have – it is a need-to-have,” said Jay Weatherill, the foundation’s director. He highlighted the health risks faced by the 2.5 billion citizens of Commonwealth nations, many of whom are under 30.
The Minderoo Foundation has been advocating for such a treaty for two years, warning that current strategies like recycling and reducing consumer demand are insufficient.The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting will run until Saturday.
King Charles to receive high chief title in Samoa
Preparations for the summit and the royal trip have been going on for months. Hotels have been renovated and roads and streets where the couple is expected to visit have been spruced up, reports my colleague Shweta Sharma.
King Charles Commonwealth visit to Samoa will highlight climate change and dance
King Charles should be prepared to dance when he visits Samoa this week.
Freddie Tuilagi made sure of that when he visited St James’ Palace recently wearing nothing but a bark cloth wrap and a necklace historically worn by orator chiefs. Charles, in a blue suit and carefully knotted tie, grinned while gamely trying to follow along as Samoa’s honorary consul to the UK moved through the steps of a traditional dance.
“He loves it. He said he wants to learn the dance,” Tuilagi said afterward, showing off his moves once again.
Tuilagi, who moved to Britain to play professional rugby, said the 75-year-old king can expect more of the same when he arrives in the South Pacific island nation on Wednesday. Villagers throughout the country of 220,000 people have taken steps to decorate and show how much they appreciate Charles’ visit, he said.
Charles, the symbolic head of the Commonwealth, is traveling to Samoa for a meeting of top government officials from each of the 56 independent nations that make up the organisation. At the top of the agenda is the fight against climate change, an issue Charles has championed for decades.
Niue celebrated 50 years of self-government on Saturday, with King Charles issuing a congratulatory video, but the Pacific Island state is excluded from this week’s Commonwealth leaders meeting, and its prime minister wants change.
Known informally as the Rock of Polynesia, Niue was settled by Samoans in 900AD and has a population of around 1,500.
Yet as Samoa hosts the 75th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where leaders and officials from 56 countries with roots in Britain’s empire are gathering in the Pacific for the first time, Niue was not invited.
“There is no use being Commonwealth family yet we can’t attend these meetings. It’s a bit weird,” said prime minister Dalton Tagelagi in an interview.
“We have put through questions on how to become a member.” The remote island, 635km (400 miles) south of Samoa, was sighted in 1774 by British explorer James Cook, who was refused permission to land by locals.
Cook named it Savage Island, and Niue became a British Protectorate 126 years later.
Annexed to New Zealand in 1901, Niue achieved self-governing status in 1974. It is in “free association” with New Zealand, which provides economic assistance, and foreign affairs and defence assistance if requested.
The US last year recognised Niue as a sovereign, independent state.
Within the Commonwealth, it is regarded as a realm of New Zealand, said Tagelagi.
New Zealand’s foreign ministry said eligibility for membership was a matter for the Commonwealth Secretariat.
“We have an understanding with the government that Niue is already in the Commonwealth family,” a Commonwealth spokesperson said in an email statement to Reuters.
Niueans want to “shape their own destiny” while maintaining a steadfast partnership with New Zealand, Tagelagi said.
It was important to also form other diplomatic ties, he said, pointing to Niue’s partnerships with 28 countries.
‘Can’t wait’: King and Queen depart Australia ahead of Samoa visit
The King and Queen have said they “can’t wait” to arrive in Samoa for a state visit and experience the “warmth” of the country’s ancient traditions.
Charles and Camilla ended their six-day tour of Australia and boarded a Royal Australian Air Force (Raaf) plane bound for the Polynesian nation.
Samoa’s prime minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mataafa will be waiting to greet the royal couple when they step off their jet for the final leg of their overseas trip.
Soon after the Raaf plane took off the couple posted a message on social media under their names.
They said: “As we head towards Apia, we can’t wait to visit Samoa for the first time together and to experience the warmth of ancient traditions with your remarkable people. Feiloa’i ma le manuia!
– Charles R & Camilla R”
The tweet included 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) which has the theme “One Resilient Common Future”.
The King is head of the Commonwealth and for the first time will preside over the gathering of presidents and prime ministers, and formally open the event which will 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.
Alpaca sneezes on King Charles during walkabout in Australia
One of the most light-hearted moments from the Australian royal tour saw an alpaca sneeze on King Charles III as he greeted crowds on a walkabout in Canberra.
Hefner was calmly waiting — wearing a crown and a gold bow tie — before leaving the King “in disbelief” with a sneeze after Charles stroked his nose.
Mr Fletcher said: “The King just looked in disbelief. But it’s just who Hefner is. He is an alpaca after all.
“He doesn’t bite and he doesn’t spit. He’s always on his best behaviour anyway.
“And he is a pro-monarchy alpaca.”
In pictures: Charles and Camilla conclude Australia trip
King Charles’ visit to Australia ‘draws’ smaller crowds compared to Queen’s 1954 tour
Esther Anatolitis, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state, said while thousands turned out to see the Charles and Camilla at their public engagements, the numbers were larger when his mother Queen Elizabeth II first visited Australia 70 years ago.
An estimated 75 per cent of Australia’s population saw the queen in person during the first visit by a reigning British monarch in 1954.
“It’s understandable that Australians would be welcoming the king and queen, we also welcome them,” Ms Anatolitis said.
“But it doesn’t make any sense to continue to have a head of state appointed by birth right from another country.”Ms Anatolitis acknowledged that getting a majority of Australians in a majority of states to vote to change the constitution would be difficult. Australians haven’t changed their constitution since 1977.
How was King Charles’s first Australia visit as reigning British monarch in 13 years?
King Charles ends the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch in 13 years on Tuesday as anti-monarchists hope the debate surrounding his journey is a step toward an Australian citizen becoming head of state.
Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, watched dancers perform at a Sydney Indigenous community center.
The couple used tongs to cook sausages at a community barbecue lunch at the central suburb of Parramatta and later shook the hands of well-wishers for the last time during their visit outside the Sydney Opera House. Their final engagement was an inspection of navy ships on Sydney Harbor in an event known as a fleet review.
Charles’s trip to Australia was scaled down because he is undergoing cancer treatment.
Indigenous activist Wayne Wharton, 60, was arrested outside the opera house yesterday afternoon before the royals greeted the crowd.
Indigenous activist arrested outside opera house
Indigenous activist Wayne Wharton, 60, was arrested outside the opera house yesterday before the royals greeted the crowd.
The monarch, 75, and his supporters were targeted by Mr Wharton who encouraged the crowds gathered at the Sydney Opera House to leave with the King.
“It will be alleged the man was acting in an abusive and threatening manner and had failed to comply with two previous move-on directions,” a police statement said.
He was charged with failing to comply with a police direction and will appear in court on 5 November.
Mr Wharton said he intended to serve Charles with a summons to appear in court on war crimes and for genocide but never got close to the couple.
The royal visit was “a slap in the face to every decent Aboriginal person and fair-minded person in Australia that’s tried to make a go of their lives,” Mr Wharton told the AP after his arrest.
On Monday, Indigenous independent senator Lidia Thorpe yelled at Charles during a reception that he was not her king and Australia was not his land.Wharton said he backed Thorpe “absolutely 100 per cent”.
He had protested with a small group of demonstrators outside a Sydney church service the couple attended on Sunday under a banner “Empire Built on Genocide”.
Source: independent.co.uk
