KE AUPUNI UPDATE - MAY 2026
The Role of Diplomacy
Serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom for the past 26 years has taught me a lot. Today, we’re going to take a cursory glance at the history of foreign affairs and the Hawaiian Kingdom and why diplomacy has played such an important in our nation.
Earlier this month, we witnessed the triumphant premiere of the Hawaiian Opera, Kamalehua: the Sheltering Tree. It was an outstanding production, receiving well-deserved standing ovations by packed houses at each of its three performances at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. We say, Hoʻomaikaʻi! Congratulations! to creator Patrick Makuakane and all those who collaborated in the production of this amazing work of art.
The story is about Hawaii’s first diplomat, Timoteo Haʻalilio, who in 1842 was commissioned and sent by King Kamehameha III as his emissary to secure recognition of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s sovereignty by the world’s superpowers of the day. Haʻalilio and his assistant, the Rev. William Richardson, crossed two oceans in traveling to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium.
Against all odds, in November of 1843, Haʻalilio, this first Hawaiian Kingdom diplomat, a native man from a tiny far-off country in the middle of the Pacific, succeeded in convincing the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of France, the top colonial powers of the world, to issue a joint proclamation recognizing and respecting the Hawaiian Kingdom, a non-Western nation, as a sovereign, independent country.
This was followed months later with recognition by the United States and Belgium. From that point on, Hawaii was considered a member of the “family of nations”, on equal terms with the colonial powers of the world.
Formal treaties followed, along with internationally leading-edge policies such as the abolition of slavery (1852) and neutrality, non-involvement in other countries’ wars (1854 and 1861). By the 1890s the Hawaiian Kingdom enjoyed bilateral treaties and conventions with sovereign nations worldwide. These agreements established formal diplomatic relations, friendship and trade with global powers such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Japan, the German Empire, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark and more.
The Hawaiian Kingdom was a member of the Universal Postal Union, the first multilateral treaty body of its kind and the precursor to treaty bodies that would come decades later… like the League of Nations and the present-day United Nations.
By the 1890s the Hawaiian Kingdom had 136 embassies and consulates located in 26 foreign nations around the world.
All this was the result of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs whose diplomats served admirably following in the footsteps of Hawaii’s first diplomat, Timoteo Ha’alilio.
After Kamehameha ʻEkāhi united our islands into the Hawaiian Kingdom, our greatest successes as a nation came through our reliance on diplomacy, not through conflicts on the battlefield or in the courts. That is the way of our kūpuna and our aliʻi. The way of Aloha…
Aloha ʻĀina —
“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono.
The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
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For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 7 PM, the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
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Malama Pono,
Leon Siu
Hawaiian National
Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Hawaiian Kingdom (since 2001)
