A ceremonial flag raising was held this morning to open the first United States of America Embassy in Tonga in a historical event, held at the National Reserve Bank Building in Nuku’alofa.

However, after the flag was raised it was lowered to fly at half mast today in respect of lives lost in a recent Texas mall shooting attack.

Deputy Chief of Mission of U.S Embassy Suva, Antone Greubel said this event symbolized the renewal of Tonga and the United States’ relationship, which underlined the strength of their commitment to the bilateral relationship and to the people of Tonga.

He said the partnership between the United States and Tonga “is rooted in shared values and close cooperation, ranging from combating climate crisis to improving maritime security and enhancing our cooperation to advance economic and sustainable development.”

"We are also looking forward to celebrating our Embassy opening on an even larger scale later this year. Today’s embassy opening comes less than one year after Vice President Harris announced [2] that the United States would pursue discussions to establish an embassy in Tonga, and it is the beginning of a new chapter of U.S-Tongan relations."

“This new embassy reflects the U.S commitment to expand and deepen our cooperation with the Kingdom of Tonga in the years ahead and will enable with our friends in Tonga and the broader region, connect U.S programs and resources with needs on the ground to support frequent requests for more consular services in the region and strengthen people to people ties.”

Tonga

The Acting Prime Minister and Acting Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Samiu Vaipulu said this day was long awaited due to the historical and close ties between the Kingdom of Tonga and the United States of America.

He said that less than one year after the official announcement made by Vice President Kamala Harris at the 51^st Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting, 51^st Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting [2] we gathered for the opening of the first Embassy of the United States of America in the Kingdom of Tonga.

The relationship between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Tonga dated back to 1886 when both countries entered a Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation.

“Last year during H.E, Wendy Sherman’s visit [3] to Tonga, we had the opportunity to jointly mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between our two countries,” he said.

“The partnership between Tonga and the United States are broad and deep and based on shared values and close cooperation. Our people-to-people links continue to be the foundation upon which our longstanding partnership and friendly ties are build. So the opening of the US Embassy represents an important milestone in Tonga’s history and one which Government warmly welcomes.”

Flag ceremony

A flag ceremony was held at the NRBT with the honours given to US-Tongan, Sgt Alavoni Tukunga who hoisted the first flag of the United States marking the opening of its embassy.

An emotional Sgt Tukunga who migrated with her family from Tonga to Hawaii as a young girl, received the flag from DCM Greubel. She was accompanied by members of her Oceania Engagement Team from U.S. Army Pacific. 

Consular services

After the ceremony, Greubel said that no specific time frame had been given on when consular services would begin, but it is a major priority because they know how important it is.

He said this is just the first phase with the opening.

“It is really important to open the embassy as soon as possible because once we have our people on the ground working out of this building, we can now start to outfit this space. This space is already great, but we are going to have to do renovations to be able to do consular servicess, and if you have been to our embassy in Suva, you will see our security procedures.”

The next phase of outfiting this space will enable the embassy to provide its services from consular to public diplomacy services, he said.