Charles receives a warm welcome on his first visit to Samoa as king. But uncomfortable questions await

SIUMU, Samoa – In the dark, dozens of people lined a narrow street near the Samoan fishing village of Siumu, gathering near a sign bearing a portrait of King Charles III. and waited excitedly to catch a glimpse of the real monarch.

A murmur ran through the crowd as a motorcade appeared on Wednesday carrying the first British king to visit a Pacific island nation.

Hands waved briefly from rolled down windows and those standing in just the right spot caught a glimpse of the king’s face. Then the monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, were gone. The royals arrived from a visit to Australia early on Wednesday evening.

“All the people of Samoa are very excited,” said Numio Faoagali, a garbage collector from Siumu who spent three days cleaning and decorating his house with a Union flag and bunting. He hoped Charles, who was staying at a nearby resort, might see it.

“It’s the first time you see the king. “We only saw him on TV, not here in Samoa,” he said.

Charles is expected to chair a major meeting of leaders from Commonwealth countries in Samoa, including many who once had colonial ties with Britain. His presence, as in Australia, is likely to raise troubling questions about the role of the British Crown in the history and aspirations of its former territories.

But his visit also caused joy on Wednesday.

Locals were thrilled that their village was chosen to host the monarch and gathered two hours early on Wednesday to await his arrival. Madeleine A. Tofaeono-Galo said her cousin, who lived on the other side of the island, traveled to Siumu “just to see the king.”

While the capital Apia was busy making final preparations to welcome Charles, other world leaders and more than 3,000 delegates to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, excitement focused on the global spotlight that the monarch’s presence would bring to the island nation with 218,000 inhabitants.

“We are excited about a unique opportunity,” Siumu top chief Ataona Tusi Fafetai told The Associated Press.

“We are proud of our core values ​​of hospitality, respect, love and care for our employees,” he added. “It’s a great opportunity for us to show the world who we are and what we are as people and what our identity is as Samoans.”

It is the first time a Pacific island will host the biennial summit of heads of state and government. More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small countries like Samoa, many of them island nations that are among the world’s most vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Climate change will take up a large part of the summit’s agenda. Charles has been campaigning for decades to raise awareness of the issue, and leaders are expected to agree to a maritime declaration making new but unspecified commitments.

“We need support to adequately reduce the greenhouse effect on our Pacific islands,” said Fafetai, the chief. The summit was not only about “unity and awareness,” he added, but also “to come up with some solutions that will help us.”

The forum will test the ability of the group of nations from around the world with different political interests and economic fortunes to agree on substantive issues. It will also likely face uncomfortable, existential questions.

The Commonwealth is seen by some as a remnant of an empire with an uncertain mission in the 21st century, and discussions about colonization among its members have intensified in recent years. All three candidates for the organization’s next secretary general – from Ghana, Lesotho and Gambia – have called for financial reparations for the past enslavement of colonized people.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is attending the summit, has been pressured by some ruling Labor MPs to consider the prospect. But his government says it is not up for discussion.

“Reparations are not on the agenda of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting,” Starmer spokesman Dave Pares said ahead of the summit. “The government’s position has not changed. We don’t pay reparations.”

Britain will not apologize for slavery at the summit, Pares said. He also rejected suggestions that the Commonwealth’s importance had declined.

The summit would “bring together delegations from 56 countries, representing a common market for British businesses that will be worth $19.5 trillion by 2027,” Pares said.

However, there will be some notable absences from the event.

The leaders of the two largest Commonwealth countries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, attend a meeting of BRICS developing countries hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also canceled his trip to Samoa as he is struggling with political problems at home.

In a group of countries even more different and unequal than before, observers will examine whether Charles can be the unifying figure that his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, once was.

“I think he knows that the Commonwealth was one of the most important things his mother did,” said Anna Whitelock, professor of the history of the monarchy at the City, University London. “Not only are we holding this commonwealth of countries together, but we’re actually maintaining a kind of spirit of community, cooperation and relevance in a world where there are so many other power blocs and challenges.”

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka contributed from London.