SUVA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga on Friday responded to U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate deal, saying that Pacific Island States had been abandoned by the move.
The remarks came after Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama released a statement earlier on Friday, saying he was deeply disappointed that the United States had quit the 2015 Paris Accord.
The decision by the Trump Administration was deeply disappointing, especially for the citizens of vulnerable nations throughout the world and of grave disappointment for millions of people around the world, Bainimarama said.
Speaking to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, Sopoaga said the U.S. withdrawal should not stop affected island nations from campaigning for climate change.
He said other countries that have remained committed to the Paris agreement must take leadership and ownership to work together.
"It's a concern to Tuvalu because we thought we were with the U.S. because they were here during World War II. We provided our islands as launching pad for them to achieve their objectives and now we are facing the biggest war of our time -- they are abandoning us. It's really an act of abandoning small island countries like Tuvalu."
Sopoaga, who was in Fiji to launch a documentary on linking the islands, added that island nations should continue to paddle their own canoe and get everyone else on board.
He will fly to New York to join other world leaders at the World Oceans Conference to be held next week.
