As the leaders of 56 nations gathered in Samoa this week, King Charles declared the Commonwealth was facing an “existential threat”.
He was not referring to a crisis of relevance, but .
The dire warning defied critics who have long derided the King’s lifelong activism as “political”, making clear he sees climate change as a human issue.
Members endorsed an Ocean Declaration to protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030, while a leaders’ communique called for “meaningful, truthful, and respectful conversations” about slavery and the potential for reparatory justice.
For Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the talks were a chance to engage with our closest neighbours in the Pacific, advance policing initiatives, and become an honorary chief.
But the meeting wasn’t without hiccups. Here’s what happened at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
The PM given chief status
Albanese received a hero’s welcome in the village of Satapuala, which was decked out in green and gold for his visit.
Villages across Samoa were assigned a Commonwealth nation to welcome for the week, and Satapuala did not disappoint.
After a traditional ceremony, Albanese was bestowed the title of “Toeolesulusulu” — the highest honour in the village, elevating him to the same status as a chief.
“Thank you so much for welcoming me into your family for the highest of honours that I have received today. I’m deeply touched by it,” he said.
“This will be a permanent connection between Australia and beautiful Samoa.”
Local children in the village of Satapuala, which hosted Anthony Albanese, told SBS News they’d spent months learning the lyrics to Advance Australia Fair to sing to the prime minister. Source: SBS News / Sara Tomevska
Australia’s emissions targets criticised
While ties with the host nation appeared to deepen, relations with Tuvalu appeared to sour.
Just two months after , legally binding Australia to aid the island nation in the event of climate crisis, Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo criticised Australia’s ongoing fossil fuel emissions.
“To put it plainly, it is a death sentence … for us in Tuvalu, if larger nations continue to increase their emissions levels,” Teo said.
“Australia is highly morally obliged to ensure that whatever action it does, will not compromise the commitment it has provided in terms of climate impact.”
Dancers performing during the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Friday. Source: AAP, AP / William West
Teo was joined by Fiji and Vanuatu in launching a new Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which found Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom are responsible for over 60 per cent of emissions in the Commonwealth since 1990, despite making up 6 per cent of its population.
Albanese said Australia has committed to net zero by 2050, adding “Australia is playing a leadership role” on climate action in the region.
On the sidelines, Australia and the UK signed a new climate partnership aimed at speeding up the rollout of new renewable technologies like green hydrogen.
Calls to address slavery
While “none of us can change the past”, he acknowledged many painful aspects of colonialism “continue to resonate”.
Ahead of the meeting, there was growing momentum among Caribbean and African nations to push for financial reparations for slavery — something UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer ruled out before the summit even began.
The final communique called for “discussions on reparatory justice”.
“Heads … agreed to continue playing an active role in bringing about such inclusive conversations, addressing these harms, paying special attention to women and girls who suffered disproportionately from these appealing tragedies in the history of humanity,” the statement read, having referred to the slave trade, the debilitation and dispossession of Indigenous people, among other “abhorrent” historical events.
Zambia’s foreign minister Mulambo Haimbe told SBS News there was far from one unanimous view on what “reparatory justice” should or could look like.
“The first thing is to look at the problem, identify it, and see whether there is a solution to it. Is it a generational solution that we’re looking at? Is it a strict legal solution that we’re looking at?” Haimbe said.
“All these are potential conversations that need to be had, and once we have them in a kind of fashion, it would probably give us all strategic focus.”
Albanese also acknowledged Australia’s long-abolished practice of blackbirding — where tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders were kidnapped to work on Queensland sugarcane plantations — as a “dark chapter in our history”.
Blackbirding was directly referenced in the final leaders’ communique.
The elephant in the room
While China, a non-Commonwealth nation, did not attend the summit, Beijing’s presence could be seen all over Apia on buildings bearing “China Aid” placards.
The influx of investment has led to Samoa’s debt repayments to China ballooning to 2.6 per cent of GDP, despite major infrastructure projects like Apia’s hospital lying in ruin.
Amid rolling climate disasters, economic hits from the COVID-19 pandemic, and concerns around labour mobility arrangements, Dr Meg Keen from the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program said it is unsurprising that Pacific nations have looked beyond traditional partners for help.
“The Commonwealth is supposed to give economic opportunity, and I think it’s fair to say that those opportunities have not been expanding at a big enough or fast enough rate,” she said.
“So we have seen some leaders talk about, ‘Can we open those economic doors wider?’ Because that’s what their youth needs, and that’s what their women need.”
Despite not being a Commonwealth nation, China’s influence in Samoa’s capital, Apia, was clear. Source: Supplied
Pacific policing in force as China looms large
Just two months after a Pacific Policing Initiative (PPI) was (PIF) in Tonga, the first deployment of a Pacific Police Support Group was in force in Apia.
Some 46 officers from 11 Pacific nations worked alongside hundreds of Samoan — and Australian — police to oversee the smooth running of the Commonwealth meeting.
Speaking at a gathering of PIF nations on the sidelines of CHOGM, Albanese told leaders: “We’re all members of the same family, the Pacific family.
“A security threat to any of us is a threat to all of us.”
Australia will spend $400 million to establish training facilities in Brisbane, and four “centres of excellence” across the Pacific — one confirmed in PNG — in an effort to build policing capacity across the region and boost interoperability.
While the PPI does respond to genuine challenges in the region, including growing drug trafficking and illegal fishing, there are some Pacific leaders who have been concerned the deal is a thinly veiled attempt to lock China out of the region.
