Foreign Ministry confirms Samoa will open embassy in Jerusalem this year

Island nation set to become third South Pacific country to establish mission in capital; Sa’ar invites Samoan Prime Minister Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt to visit Israel

By Lazar Berman

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and ToI Staff 11 January 2026, 12:22 pm

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The Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Samoa will become the third Pacific island nation to open an embassy in Jerusalem, confirming a report last week in Samoan media.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke with Samoan Prime Minister Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt and invited him to Israel, according to the Israeli statement.

Samoa, which has an estimated population of around 212,000 and is smaller than the US state of Rhode Island, is set to open the embassy later this year.

Last week, the Samoa Observer, a local newspaper, reported that Schmidt, who was sworn in last September, announced that the country intended to open the embassy.

“I [have] instruct[ed] our foreign affairs to start preparation to open an office of Samoa in Jerusalem this year,” he was quoted as saying in an address at a Christian pro-Israel prayer service.

According to the report, he noted that the step would be in the wake of the same move by neighboring Fiji.

View of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, as it seen from the Mount of Olives observatory, on February 25, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Seven countries — the United States, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay — currently have full embassies in Jerusalem.

More nations have branches in Israel’s capital, with a full embassy in Tel Aviv amid a decades-old taboo against establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Argentina has halted its plans to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, a report said Saturday, due to “tension” between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Argentine President Javier Milei in recent weeks.

According to Channel 12 news, tensions arose due to the Israeli-owned Navitas Petroleum company’s plans to carry out offshore drilling in the Falkland Islands, expected to begin in 2028.

The Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory, although Argentina claims that it, not the United Kingdom, has sovereignty over the islands, which it refers to as Islas Malvinas.