Lord Taumoepeau-Tupou

Lord Sonatane Tu'akinamolahi Taumoepeau-Tupou of Toula and Kotu (70),  Tonga's first Permanent Representative to the United Nations passed away at Vaiola Hospital on Tuesday, August 13.

Lord Taumoepeau-Tupou retired from his diplomatic post and returned to Tonga on July 3. While in New York he was also Tonga's Ambassador to the United States, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and the Tongan High Commissioner to Canada.

His daughter, Lady Kalaniuvalu-Fotofili said today that her father would be buried in Tongatapu and not in Vava'u, and a funeral date had not been set.

Lord Taumoepeau-Tupou is survived by his four children, two girls and two boys, and grandchildren. He was pre-deceased by his wife, 'Amelia Latuniua, a younger sister of the Queen Mother Halaevalu Mata‘aho.

Long Service

In 2000-04 he was appointed as the country's first Permanent Representative to the UN. He returned to Nuku'alofa and became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in September 2004 and the Acting Minister of Defence in November 2005. In 2009 he returned to New York  again as Tonga's Permanent Representative to the UN.

He had spent over 30 years in Tonga’s civil service and served at the Prime Minister’s Office and the Palace Office in Nuku'alofa. He became the first Secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1979, and from 1983-86 he was Tonga’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

In 2011 he was elevated to Life Peerage with a noble title Lord Taumoepeau-Tupou of Toula and Kotu, awarded by the late King George Tupou V.

Lord Taumoepeau-Tupou meeting President Obama in 2010.