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Commonwealth has not lost its influence in the world

Jul 04, 2009 News

The Commonwealth grouping’s influence in the world has not diminished, despite the emergence of a number of economic and political blocs within the past decade, according to the body’s Secretary General.
The Commonwealth, which is made up of the United Kingdom and its former colonies, has been a major force in world affairs and may be second only to the United Nations in terms of its influential impact.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at Le Meridien Pegasus, Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, said that the way the Commonwealth has emerged, it has always created its own space.
“It is a unique body in the way it acts and the potential it has, and I just don’t see it simply in competition with any other body because I don’t think that any other body easily matches the characteristics and unique features of the Commonwealth,” Sharma said.
According to the Secretary General, the strength of the Commonwealth has been that it has always been ahead of the times in gestating an idea.
He explained that the very idea of creating an international community is what constitutes the Commonwealth.
In 1949 the London Declaration was signed by three newly (at the time) independent countries from South Asia — India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
And that was the first meeting of an international community which met without a purpose except to recognise that a new world was being created.
Since its establishment, the Commonwealth has been followed by such groupings as the Organisation of American States, the African Union, CARICOM and more recently, the European Union.
The Secretary General reminded that it was the Commonwealth that worked effectively to secure independence in a number of African countries as well as dismantle the apartheid system in South Africa.
He said that the core values of the Commonwealth have been significant in impacting the way several other groupings have embraced the various aspects of development.
“…On the treatment of debt, we’ve had a big impact on how to handle the phenomenon of brain drain, of skills…particularly our teachers and health workers. The protocols that have been created are all Commonwealth protocols and they have been accepted by the relevant UN bodies,” the Secretary General explained.
It is with this in mind that the Commonwealth has had a presence at most of the global summits.
Secretary General Sharma said that it is the stability of the Commonwealth to introduce a very high value, which is going to be seen more and more in the time to come.

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