Ahead of the signing of the Samoa Agreement in Apia next week Tonga's Prime Minister Hon. Hu’akavameiliku met with the Secretary General of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) HE Mr. Georges Rebelo Chikoti, on 7 November, in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

The Samoa Agreement is a partnership agreement that will be signed by the European Union (EU) and its Member States, and the 79 Member States of OACPS, on 15 November 2023 in Samoa. It is the first of such comprehensive partnership agreements between the OACPS and EU to be signed in the Pacific. The partnership unites 106 countries and some 1.5 billion people.

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku thanked the OACPS secretariat’s support towards the Samoa Agreement, the Prime Minister's Office stated.

It succeeds the Cotonou Agreement and other ACP-EU development, economic and trade cooperation partnership agreements that have been signed since the first Lomé Convention of 1975.

“Tonga has come a long way from its long partnership within the OACPS, and our deepened commitments and engagements with a Post Cotonou Agreement marks our elevated commitment towards further strengthening that partnership through the milestone Samoa Agreement," said Hon. Hu’akavameiliku.

Samoa Agreement

The Samoa Agreement lays down common principles and covers the following six priority areas:

• democracy and human rights
• sustainable economic growth and development
• climate change
• human and social development
• peace and security
• migration and mobility

Negotiations for the new partnership agreement started in 2018, with the agreed text being initialed in April 2021 by the Chief Negotiators, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Togo for the OACPS, and the European Commissioner for International Partnerships for the EU.

An anticipated 500 plus delegates will be in Apia on 15 November, for the signing to be held at the National Multipurpose Gymnasium at Tuanaimato.

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku said that Tonga looks forward to an ambitious but a strengthened political partnership and the mutually beneficial outcomes of common interests that the Samoa Agreement shall generate.

“It is the platform that we embrace to overcome the common development challenges towards a sustainable future for our people."

“Tonga now looks forward to leveraging the potential trade and other shared opportunities with the European Union under the SAMOA Agreement.”

He said the outcomes of the close partnership would pave the way for critical regional process and to building the momentum on international obligations to realising Members’ desired outcomes.