Opening

Pacific Forum leaders meet opens in Samoa

A traditional Ava ceremony was accorded the heads of the Forum-member delegations as well as the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Secretary General Dame Meg Taylor at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum.

Samoa Prime Minister and Chair of the meeting, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi called on the leaders and member countries to stand together and implement the decisions that the leaders endorse at this year's meeting.

He also encouraged the Pacific to support Fiji's co-presidency of the COP 23, the annual round of the ongoing UN climate negotiations in Germany later this year.