Col (Ret‘d) Siamelie Latu was a former Deputy Commander and Joint Operation Commander of His Majesty’s Armed Forces (HMAF) of the Kingdom of Tonga. He is the former Ambassador of the Kingdom of Tonga to the People’s Republic of China from 2010-2015. He served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 7 years as Acting Secretary of the Foreign Ministry until he resigned in 2017. He took up the post of CEO of Tonga Energy Commission in 2022. He was selected during OPERA Annual Meeting in 2022 as the Chair of the Office of the Pacific Energy Regulators Alliance (OPERA). As a graduate of the University of New England, Australia he was conferred a Bachelor of Professional Studies. Mr. Latu graduated from the Australian Army Command and Staff College where he was credited with a degree of Master of Defence Studies from the University of Canberra. He is also a graduate of the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu Hawaii. He attended the National Defence University of the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China. He is also a graduate of Deakin University where he was conferred a Master of Arts (Strategic Studies). He is also a fellow of the Australia Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies.