Preparations are well in hand for the hosting of the next Commonwealth summit in Malta in November 2015.
Speaking to Times of Malta on the occasion of Commonwealth Day – marked today – Foreign Minister George Vella said that the fact that Malta had already organised the CHOGM in 2005 served as a good basis for the preparations being made for next year.
The event, which will cost about €7 million, will be held in Malta by chance as it was meant to be held in Mauritius, which, however, backed out in protest over the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, where the last Commonwealth summit was held. Malta stepped in and offered to host the 53 Commonwealth heads of State and of government next year.
Dr Vella explained that Malta had not been planning to hold the CHOGM again. “However, when the problem of Mauritius cropped up, many delegations asked us whether we were interested to step in. We said that we won’t be submitting our candidacy but if there was a unanimous decision we would be interested to host the summit. That is how it all came about,” Dr Vella said.
Although some may view the Commonwealth as a toothless and irrelevant organisation in today’s political world, the Foreign Minister said Malta intended to use the summit to boost the Commonwealth and its role. “The Commonwealth is a good network, which, if used properly, can leave many benefits. Some large countries are members, such as the UK, Australia, Canada and India, and their presence on the world stage is very relevant.
“If all 53 countries network together, even through the advantage that they all use the same language, the benefits are quite obvious,” he said.
Dr Vella said that Malta had already put forward some ideas to be discussed at the summit, including the possibility of the creation of a Commonwealth Bank that can attract an initial capital of about €1 billion and could be used to grant micro-credit to SMEs in Commonwealth countries.
Asked whether Malta would be trying to persuade The Queen to attend, even though she has restricted travelling due to her age, Dr Vella said the government was hoping she would be here.
“We hope that, due to her affinity with Malta and the fact that she would not need to travel for long stretches, Her Majesty will accept to come. However, these are still early days and one has to see. We would, of course, be very glad if a representative of the Royal family, if not the Queen herself, were to be present.”
The Commonwealth summit is held every two years and is chaired by the Prime Minister of the host country.