Senior Minister Ly Thuch, Chairman of the 2024 Ottawa Convention, held bilateral meetings with Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tonga, to request that Tonga consider joining the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines (Ottawa Convention) while Cambodia is chairing and hosting the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine-Free World on November 25–29, 2024.

The meeting took place on April 23, 2024, at the UN-ESCAP headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Kingdom of Tonga is one of three island nations in the Pacific that have not yet become parties to the Ottawa Convention, including Tonga, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia, which Cambodia considers a priority state and has sufficient accession to the Ottawa Convention.

On behalf of Cambodia as the Chair of the 2024 Ottawa Convention and on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, Ly Thuch requested that Tonga consider its feasibility and consider becoming a state party to the Ottawa Convention.

In response, Ms. Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu will take Cambodia’s request to the Royal Government of Tonga to examine and consider the participation of States Parties to the 2024 Ottawa Convention. Fresh News

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