Apia, Samoa:
Britain’s King Charles will hold the title of supreme leader in Samoa on a three-day visit starting Wednesday and will focus on the effects of climate change-induced sea level rise in the Pacific island nation.
Lenatai Victor Tamapua, the Samoan chief and member of parliament, said he planned to give the king the title of ‘Tui Taumeasina’ during the traditional ceremonial reception of Charles and Queen Camilla on Thursday.
He will later take Charles on a walking tour of a mangrove reserve that will highlight the impact of climate change on Pacific nations and their communities.
“The king tide today is double what it was 20, 30 years ago, and it’s affecting our land, and it’s eating up some areas that are very difficult for us to control, and pushing people inland. Gotta go inland now,” said Tamapua.
Charles has campaigned on environmental issues throughout his life and in 2020 named global warming and climate change as the greatest threat facing humanity.
The offer of the top chief title to Charles came after he was accused of “genocide” by an Australian Indigenous senator at Parliament House in Canberra during a six-day tour of Australia that ended on Wednesday.
The Australian royal visit was Charles’ first overseas visit as sovereign, his first major overseas visit since his cancer diagnosis, and the first visit to Australia by a British monarch in 13 years.
Charles is head of state in Australia, New Zealand and 12 other Commonwealth territories outside the United Kingdom, although the role is largely ceremonial.
He is also the symbolic head of the Commonwealth and is traveling to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting, his first trip to the island of about 200,000 people. They are expected to depart Samoa on Saturday morning.
More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small states, many of which are Pacific island nations facing the threat of sea level rise due to climate change. Leaders are expected to make a declaration on ocean security, with climate change a key topic for discussion.
Britain has said it will not bring the issue of historic transatlantic slavery reparations to the table at CHOGM, which has been demanded by Caribbean countries, but is open to talks with leaders who want to discuss it. are
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