By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
The official visit by the New Zealand Prime Minister and her delegation to Samoa this week is to be met with a message to honour the Treaty of Friendship to the full.
The former Prime Minister and HRPP opposition leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, blasted the message out to the visiting leader in a meeting with the local media last Thursday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her traveling party arrives tomorrow, Monday 1 August 2022, on an official invitation for ongoing Treaty of Friendship talks.
Samoa and New Zealand signed the treaty in 1962 and its 60th year is being celebrated by the two countries.
Tuilaepa has already expressed a written opinion that what Samoa and New Zealand have is a treaty and not an agreement.
“New Zealand should not equate Samoa with other countries in the region for the simple reason we have a treaty to dignify and respect as signatories,” Tuilaepa strongly reminded.
He made it clear how other neighbouring island countries during the colonial period were administered by Great Britain and have special relations as well.
Among the issues Tuilaepa would like to see addressed under the treaty is the 3 weeks it takes to process travel visas to New Zealand.
The added requirement for everyone to now apply online and pay with credit cards to process visa applications are rejected as ridiculous.
Tuilaepa argued 99.9 per cent of Samoans in Samoa do not have credit cards or even know how to ask online for visas
The deportation to Samoa of those who committed serious crimes in New Zealand is another unfair undertaking seen as unbecoming.
“This is the same thing Australia is being criticized for by the New Zealand Prime Minister – this is outrageous.
“We have been taught well by our Kiwi teachers that honour, dignity and respect of a leader of a nation lie in the observation of the written word.”
The opposition leader added more criticisms of the New Zealand Government policy not to interfere with matters that affect national corporations.
Tuilaepa did not specifically name where and how this policy badly affects Samoa but the increase of airfares by Air New Zealand for local travelers is a raging cause for major complaints.
Without a national Samoa airline carrier on the busy route to offer competition, travelers have no other choice with costly airfares.
“These are issues that should be taken up seriously with the NZ Prime Minister while she is here so as not to be seen trying to use this trip win votes.”
He called on PM Ardern to lay down policies that will benefit the Samoan community if she wants to be convincing enough to win their support in the upcoming NZ general elections.
PM Ardern and her traveling party will be treated to an official welcoming ava ceremony on the cool heights of the Robert Louis Stevenson home grounds at Vailima, late Monday afternoon.
There will be a guard of honour to follow on Tuesday morning in front of the Government Building lawn.
A meeting with the local media will follow before flying back home to New Zealand.
This will be the second official visit to Samoa by the New Zealand leader – the first was at the start of her tenure in office when Tuilaepa was then Prime Minister of Samoa.
The New Zealand leader made an official announcement during the week that she is honoured to be invited to celebrate the “ friendship and strong partnership” enjoyed by the two countries in the past 60 years.
“This trip builds on Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s visit to Aotearoa New Zealand in June, and provides another opportunity for us to reflect on our shared past and think ahead to a shared future.
“In 1962, Samoa became the first Pacific nation to achieve independence, after almost 50 fifty years under Aotearoa New Zealand’s administration.
“Two months later, the Treaty of Friendship was signed, committing both governments to working together to promote the welfare of the people of Samoa, and conduct our relationship in the spirit of close friendship; the Treaty remains the guiding light for our way forward,” Jacinda Ardern said.
Prime Minister Ardern will travel with; Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, Carmel Sepuloni; Minister of Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, Leader of the Opposition Christopher Luxon, representatives from each political party in Parliament and a delegation of Aotearoa New Zealand and Pacific leaders.