American Samoa needs to address its internal issues before trying to look at joining the Manatua Submarine Cable System.
That is what Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said about the territory’s latest attempt at connecting to the Manatua Cable system that Samoa and other Pacific countries are hooked up to.
When Governor Lolo Moliga traveled to Apia last month to discuss preparations for the Polynesian Leaders Group meeting that American Smaoa is hosting next year, this was one of the issues that he discussed with the Samoa PM.
Tuilaepa told KHJ News that there is a difficulty in meeting American Samoa’s proposition.
“The difficult issue is that this is a treaty signed by four countries…it’s a treaty not an agreement,” he said.
He explained that only the US President can sign a Treaty and it has to go through the US Congress.
“The big questions is can American Samoa sign a treaty?”
Efforts had been made at the 2017 Pacific Islands Forum in Apia to promote the cable with other members of the Pacific Leaders Group but no interest was shown by American Samoa then.
The Prime Minister said had there been interest, efforts would have been made to ensure American Samoa was part of the cable linking Samoa, Tahiti, Niue and Cook Islands.
He said the problem was that American Samoa listened to the wrong advisors at the time.
“Now the only way it can do that is if the President signs”.
