Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa held bilateral meetings with the leaders of five Small Island Developing States on the sidelines of the 10^th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the OACPS in Angola.

The SIDS leaders – representing Vanuatu, Maldives, Barbados, Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago – were also attending the 10th Summit of the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States or OACPS in the Angolan capital Luanda. 

They discussed SIDS issues within OACPS and the United Nations given Samoa’s chairmanship of the Association of Small Islands States in 2023, according to a media release issued on Thursday by the Government Press Secretariat.

The summit in Angola was chaired by the President of Angola and focused on the theme, "3 Continents, 3 Oceans, 1 Common Destiny: Building A Resilient And Sustainable OACPS".

The delegates at the summit resolved to strengthen inter and intra OACPS Cooperation to build resilience and and pursue OACPS States’ sustainable development objectives. 

It also underscored the importance of leveraging the numerical strength and diversity of the OACPS to shape the international agenda and global response to the challenges facing the developing nations of the OACPS and strengthen development cooperation with partners based on equality, mutual respect and shared prosperity. The leaders also assessed the implementation of the Declaration of the 9th Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2019.

Fiame also spoke during the inaugural ceremony to represent the Blue Pacific continent, highlighting the priorities of the region that are aligned with OACPS strategies, calling for a united stance on these priorities such as climate change and ocean. 

She also stressed the need to move beyond donor-recipient relations with partners but to focus on genuine and durable partnerships, where OACPS sit as equals. Samoa also highlighted concerns for the delay in signing the OACPS-EU new partnership agreement, and welcomed the OACPS leaders call for the signing to take place before the end of June 2023 in Samoa.  The agreement is to be called the Samoa Agreement.

The Pacific also led discussions and called for commitment to adopt the UN General Assembly Resolution for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on Climate Change.  

The Heads of State and Government adopted the Luanda Declaration providing a strategic direction for the Organisation for the next two years, which included a call from the OACPS Leaders to UN Member States to vote in support for this UN Resolution. 

Prime Minister Mataafa also represented the participants of the Summit to provide the vote of thanks to the hosts, the Government of Angola.

 The Summit also endorsed the Republic of Maldives as the newest member of the OACPS. The OACPS comprises 79 Member States from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific regions representing 1.2 billion of the global population and more than 40 percent of the United Nations membership. 

Sixty four (64) members of the OACPS are coastal States, of which 38 are Small Island Developing States like Samoa. This is the first in person meeting for the Leaders since the COVID-19 pandemic and thus provided an opportunity to discuss the impact of the pandemic, the worsening climate crisis, pressures of geopolitical changes and alignments; economic diversification and peace and security challenges. 

The summit was preceded by different Forums for Women, youth, Diaspora and Private Sector ( Business Forum).  The Leaders also held discussions with invited strategic partners including the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and leaders from Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Slovenia, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, India, the European Union, the African Development Bank, and the Commonwealth.

Prime Minister Fiame was accompanied to the summit by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade CEO, Peseta Noumea Simi, Samoa's Ambassador to Belgium, Francella Strickland and Head of Mission to the EU, Fiona Lene-Samoa as well as the Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission of the Samoa Embassy in Brussels and Senior Sergeant Nanai Vani Vai of Samoa Ministry of Police.