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Commonwealth Summit a success

Dec 14, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,

There were mixed opinions about the recently held Commonwealth Summit in Trinidad last month with world leaders praising Prime Minister Patrick Manning for a successful summit and the PM’s detractors questioning the value of the summit.

If nothing else, the hosts, Trinidad, must be lauded for bringing leaders together to discuss some very important issues, chief among which was Climate Change – the last international gathering to address the issue before the current UN Climate Summit in Denmark. Manning was recognised for his initiative to host the non-Commonwealth leaders to renew interest in the climate change conference. Leaders showered praises on him.

President Jagdeo shone at the Commonwealth summit and impressed leaders as well as the media with his presentations on climate change. At the end of the summit, leaders who had questioned the relevance of the summit became converts to renewed hope in the summit.

CHOGM was supposed to discuss matters affecting member countries like security and developmental assistance. As it turned out, the focus of attention was on Climate Change attracting non-Commonwealth participants such as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Climate change is the buzz word these days and the leaders did not want to pass up an opportunity to address it.

The entire globe is threatened by global warming and something urgently needs to be done to arrest the rise in temperature which is melting Antarctic ice caps raising water levels that threaten all of us, hence, the reason for Sarkozy, Rasmussen and Ban Ki Moon to attend CHOGM to convince member countries to take action or pressure others into action at the Denmark summit.

CHOGM forced the US to take a more activist position on climate change and to commit funds to help poor countries which are destroying their forests in the name of development. India was also pressured to commit a reduction in its green house gases which destroy the ozone layer. American President Obama was pressured into attending the Denmark summit.

Every leader poured tributes on Manning and deservedly because the leaders reached agreement for action at Copenhagen. So in terms of climate, the summit was a success and one now has to wait for Denmark to measure any change in position and what agreements would be reached.

So while critics described CHOGM as a talk shop, there was also serious business on climate and other issues. Leaders may not have arrived at any specific agreements that would benefit them and member countries may not have gotten any specific assistance, but members held useful discussions on matters of international importance and how members can help each other.

Vishnu Bisram

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