Malta and Cyprus' EU membership offers new opportunities to advocate Commonwealth concerns within the Union, the Commonwealth secretary-general, the Rt Hon. Don McKinnon, told The Sunday Times in an exclusive interview during his official visit to Malta last week.

"These concerns include the vulnerability of small states, as well as the need for a new global deal on agricultural trade, aid, debt and poverty", he stated.

His talks with the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs focused on the 53-nation Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting (CHOGM) convening here in November 2005.

"Presided over by the Head of the Commonwealth, HM Queen Elizabeth, CHOGM will probably start on November 25, and include the traditional one-day closed 'retreat' for political leaders. The conference will be preceded by the civil society, business and youth fora and other events organised here by some of the 70 Commonwealth councils and networks. Overall, some 3,000 participants and 1,000 journalists are expected to attend."

After a career in farm management and real estate, Mr McKinnon entered the New Zealand Parliament in 1978, subsequently serving as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. Commonwealth secretary-general since April 2000, he was re-elected at the 2003 CHOGM for a second term ending in 2008. The Commonwealth Secretariat (staff of 287, no Maltese) is based in a former royal palace, Malborough House (London) managing an annual budget of £38 million (Lm24.7 million).

The Secretariat's work is organised around a four-year strategic plan ending 2007/2008, to support two goals for member countries: 1) conflict prevention/resolution, strengthening democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights; 2) pro-poor policies for economic growth and sustainable development. These goals are underpinned by 13 sectoral activities and three cross-cutting programmes on Gender Equality and Equity, Capacity Building and Institutional Development, and Secretariat Governance, Management and Communications.

"CHGOM's agenda will only be finalised next autumn - so as to respond to the current international situation, as well as the G8 summit in Scotland in July 2005", Mr McKinnon explained. "However issues such as trade, HIV-AIDS, poverty and international finance are likely to figure prominently, as part of a review on how the CHOGM 2003's Abuja Declaration has been implemented. The conference will also adopt the 2005-2015 Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality."

Founded on three broad principles of democracy, development and diversity, elaborated under a series of political declarations emerging from the biannual CHOGMs, as well the work of regular ministerial conferences, the Commonwealth accounts for one-third (1.8 billion) of the world's population - and 60 per cent of its HIV-positive cases. Over 1.2 billion Commonwealth citizens live on less than 80c a day, without access to safe sanitation or adequate medical care, while one billion depend on small-scale farming for a living.

Over 700 million are under 30 while 75 million Commonwealth children do not attend primary school. In addition to the three EU members (UK, Cyprus, Malta) only Canada, New Zealand and Australia are developed nations, while 32 are small states, the focus of two-thirds of the Secretariat's budget.

"Malta has traditionally played a leading role in this latter area," Mr McKinnon said. "We are working with Professor Lino Briguglio, director of the University's Islands and Small States Institute, on proposals for strengthening the resilience of small economies and developing a resilience index. This work should help improve our delivery framework for small states projects and programmes."

A strong advocate of trade liberalisation as the key strategy for ending third world poverty, Mr McKinnon however warns that this must be appropriately paced and sequenced, allowing poor countries to adjust to the impacts of both expanding their exports and opening their markets. He foresees a related major restructuring of their agriculture as well as the continuing rural exodus to urban areas.

In his view, a successful conclusion of the ongoing World Trade Organisation negotiations (the Doha Round) scheduled to end before 2006 will depend on reversing the present 'tilt' towards the advanced countries' own agenda so as to offer extensive real benefits to developing countries. The Secretariat is running a technical assistance programme to its developing members to obtain a 'fair, not raw deal' under the Round.

Mr McKinnon insists on the need to end 'trade apartheid', and phase out EU, Japan's and US farm subsidies, running at $1 billion a day, coupled with a far greater opening of their markets to third world exports. "The EU's Common Agricultural Policy is particularly pernicious: each EU cow receives $2.20 a day while 40 per cent of the world's population lives on less than $2."

Addressing last month's G8 summit hosted by President Bush, Mr McKinnon called for 'the big push' to end extreme global poverty, advocating ideas formally endorsed by the 2003 Commonwealth Finance Ministers conference. "By this I meant far more ambitious debt relief schemes, support for Gordon Brown's proposed $50 billion International Financing Facility to enable achievement of the UN's Millennium Development Goals by 2015, innovative use of Official Development Aid to promote private investment flows to poor countries. The international financial institutions like the IMF and the World back also need innovation and a greater role in decision-making for developing countries".

The Commonwealth has meanwhile developed its own financial instruments such as the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation Fund and the Commonwealth Private Investment Initiative (CPII), which has three regional funds. Malta has benefited from several CFTC projects, and also provided training courses for Commonwealth experts under CFTC auspices. However, Mr McKinnon emphasises that development, social justice and gender equality cannot be achieved in poor countries without democracy linked to good governance and sweeping internal reforms. "In many Commonwealth countries, there is far too little democracy between elections. Two months ago the Commonwealth Principles on the Three Branches of Government were launched, setting out the relationship between parliament, the judiciary and the executive in our member countries, aimed at consolidating democracy".

The nine-nation Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, of which Malta's foreign minister is a member, monitors situations arising from both the overthrow of democratically elected government and where a member country is perceived to be in serious or persistent violation of the agreed Commonwealth principles. Their work has led to members being suspended, and readmitted.

The Statement on Terrorism issued by Commonwealth leaders shortly after the 9/11 attack has been followed by high-level meetings and Secretariat technical assistance programmes for introduction of counter-terrorism legislation in member states.

"Rooted in multi-level dialogues and mutual understanding, the Commonwealth will continue to play a leading international role for the foreseeable future," Mr McKinnon concluded.

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