Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has emphasised the importance of the 79 member states of OACPS finalising the signing of the Samoa Agreement.

The pact by the OACPS [The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States] was initialled in April 2021 but remains unratified, 20 months after negotiations concluded between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific [ACP] States.

The special relation that the OACPS share with the European Union, governed by Cotonou Partnership Agreement, will soon be replaced with the new SAMOA Agreement.

Fiame, who is attending the 10th Summit of the OACPS in the Angolan capital Luana, urged the ACP member states to finalise the signing, Pacific News Service (PACNEWS) reports. 

“OACPS has enjoyed a long standing partnership with the EU, for example, and we stress the importance of finalising the signing of the Samoa agreement in Samoa before the end of June, next year," said the Prime Minister. 

“The Blue Pacific signing of this agreement and its effective implementation, must be a priority for OACPS and EU."

Meanwhile, Samoa’s C.E.O. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peseta Noumea Simi told the preparatory meeting of the OACPS Council of Ministers last Thursday, that the Pacific nation wishes for the Leaders Summit to reaffirm the OACPS decision for a Blue Pacific signing in Samoa, including for the agreement to be named the Samoa Agreement.

“Samoa is ready to welcome you all for the signing before June next year. We must emphasise to our EU partners the concerns of the OACPS of this delay because the credibility of this long standing partnership is at stake," said the Samoan C.E.O.

“We also stress to all OACPS members to start preparing your own internal process to ensure that we can all move into full implementation mode once the Samoa Agreement signing goes ahead.

“We must also be proactive in looking at the mobilisation of resources, and finalising the institutional arrangements that will help us implement and realise the potential of this new partnership agreement."

Peseta said she look forward to the implementation of decisions from the 115th OACPS Council of Ministers on the next steps to explore with EU side, to hopefully resolve the issue.

“We look forward to the follow up of some of those decisions including on the signing of the Samoa Agreement.

“The report before us provides a faithful account of the lengthy negotiation process which took more than two years and resulted with the current OACPS-EU partnership agreement text that our chief negotiators initialled last year.

“I just wish to stress chair and members of this Council, the importance for us to be proactive in trying to help the EU come up with a solution to allow us to proceed with the signing next year."