![\"Laaulialemalietoa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JV2S13_Laauli_ICEJ_israel_embassy_2_png.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nLaaulialemalietoa Polataivao Schmidt addresses the gathering at the S\u0101moa branch of the Interntational Christian Embassy Jerusalem this week. Photo: S\u0101moa Government Facebook.
\nPhoto: S\u0101moa Government Facebook.\n<\/p>\n
S\u0101moa is set to become the third Pacific nation to have an embassy in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Polataivao Schmidt told a gathering of the S\u0101moa branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem on Tuesday he’d instructed the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin work on the opening of an office in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
He said he wanted the embassy up-and-running this year.<\/p>\n
The move follows the establishment of Fiji’s embassy in Jerusalem last year<\/a>, and the opening of Papua New Guinea’s embassy in the city in 2023.<\/p>\n Only a handful of countries recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – it is disputed territory between Israelis and Palestinians.<\/p>\n In discussing his decision, Laaulialemalietoa talked about S\u0101moa’s connections to Israel.<\/p>\n He touched on the meeting he had with Israel deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel while receiving medical treatment in New Zealand last year.<\/p>\n “I am very grateful when the [deputy] Minister of Foreign Affairs came all the way from Jerusalem to visit me when I was sick in New Zealand,” he said.<\/p>\n “It was a blessing for me to know that Israel has also had an eye [on] S\u0101moa, because we had a lot of connection in many ways.”<\/p>\n Haskel was in New Zealand briefly in November following a trip to Fiji and Papua New Guinea<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fiji’s embassy, in September, was met with mixed reactions, with the coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre saying Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka was “not on the right side of history”<\/a>.<\/p>\n