By Katalina Siasau.

The Prime Minister Hon. Hu'akavameiliku will remain as Acting Minister for Defence and Foreign Affairs throughout the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga.

When asked on how he will juggle multiple portfolios during the Forum (as Prime Minister, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, Acting Minister for Defence, Minister for Education & Training, and Minister for Police) he said, “I have nine other Ministers to delegate duties. The meeting with the leaders is a priority, but if a Foreign Minister wants to have a dialogue that is important enough, then it will go to the head [Minister].”

The Prime Minister resigned his Minster of Defence portfolio on 28 March 2024, when Hon. Fekitamoeloa 'Utoikamanu also resigned as Minister for Foreign Affairs under pressure from the King in Privy Council.

Since then, no new Ministers for HMAF and Foreign Affairs have been appointed, so Hon. Hu'akavameiliku became an Acting Minister.

However, he confirmed there had been nominations for a Minister for Foreign Affairs.

World leaders

 Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku told a media briefing this week that both the United Nations Secretary General and the Commonwealth Secretary General will be arriving in Tonga this weekend to attend the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting next week. The Forum expects to have 21 countries coming to the meeting as dialogue partners,

“It's great for the Secretary General to be here at Tonga. Not just here in Tonga per se but here at the Forum. I believe it's very important for leaders such as the SG to actually have that on-site experience of what we’ve been talking about when we come to the UN or any of the other meetings," he said on Wednesday.

The Forum provides an opportunity for the Pacific leaders to have a talanoa with the UN Secretary General, António Guterres. "It’s also an opportunity to formulate what the Pacific can do, with the support of the SG to highlight issues such as climate change and renewable energy and so forth."

“He’s very busy, even when we go for the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) for the General Assembly, we rarely have time to sit down and have a proper conversation about issues that we wanna discuss,” he said.

The UN Secretary General Guterres and the Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland Baroness Scotland of Asthal, were invited to the Forum by Tonga.

Non-members

Azerbaijan, the host country of this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP29) is sending a delegation to the Forum meeting.  

Azerbaijan confirmed to Matangi Tonga that while in Tonga, Mukhtar Babayev, President-Designate of COP29 will address the leaders and extend invitations to them to attend COP29 in Baku this November.

Delegations from the African countries Lesotho and Uganda are also coming to the Forum meeting, and, possibly, lobbyists from other African countries.

Meanwhile, US billionaire Elon Musk of SpaceX was invited by Tonga, and is sending a representative for the Forum.