LEADERS from 53 countries will gather in London next week for the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

This year’s week-long summit is expected to attract around 5,000 participants from government, business, and civil society under the theme, ‘Towards a Common Future’.
Top of the agenda for discussion by leaders at CHOGM 2018, are: •A Commonwealth Blue Charter on ocean governance; •A Commonwealth connectivity agenda for trade and investment; •A declaration on cybercrime and Revised Commonwealth guidelines on election observation in member countries. President David Granger again will lead this country’s delegation to this very important global forum and will undoubtedly use the occasion to promote Guyana as a destination open to do business with the world. Areas such as oil and gas and our expanding mining industry will be of particular interest to other countries looking into Guyana, as well as President Granger’s advocacy on climate change mitigation and the promotion of a “green” economy.

In fact, Minister of State Joseph Harmon told the media last week that the President, who would be joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, Director-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Audrey Waddle and Guyana’s High Commissioner to London, Hamley Case, will emphasise Guyana’s role in and contribution to the green agenda. He also gave a reminder that 2019 will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Iwokrama reserve and that Guyana recently dedicated approximately 700,000 hectares of the protected area of the Konashen Protected Area, home of the Wai Wai people, in the South Rupununi to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy. Guyana will therefore use the opportunity of the heads of government meeting to continue its leadership role in the establishment of the “green” agenda of the Commonwealth, as we seek to establish a “green” economy and “green” state as our model of development,” the Minister of State added.

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has been reported as saying that: CHOGM 2018 promises to deliver transformational change for the people of the Commonwealth. She said the presidents and prime ministers and other high-level government representatives from one quarter of the countries of the world are assembling and through consensus, they will reach agreement on collective action with the impact of their decisions likely to extend far beyond the boundaries of the Commonwealth. For Scotland, the immediate impact combined with wider influence make the Commonwealth an unparalleled force for building understanding and cooperation towards realising global goals for social and political progress, inclusive prosperity, and sustainable development.

The pre-eminence of the Commonwealth to this country’s protection and development can be traced to the Forbes Burnham PNC government, under whose leadership independence was attained on May 26, 1966. At independence, Guyana joined this institution, working with it as a platform in protecting and advancing our national interest. The importance of this institution to Guyana’s development saw the then government working assiduously to ensure its then Foreign Affairs Minister Sir Shridath Ramphal elected secretary-general (SG).

Serving from July 1, 1975, to June 30, 1990, Ramphal was the second secretary- general and thus far holds the distinction as the longest serving. Prior to being Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was the nation’s attorney general; a new nation whose legal infrastructure he helped to define and shape.

This was the period on the international front when young Guyana was navigating the Cold War conflicts, opting for the path of Non-Alignment, and experiencing aggression at its borders by its neighbours, Suriname and Venezuela. Simultaneously, on the domestic front, the country was engaging in efforts to forge a unified society on the aspiration of “One People, One Nation, One Destiny,” having come out of serious physical/ racial conflicts where lives were lost and communities were divided.

Even as Guyana sought to make its mark in influencing and shaping global human development, this institution afforded us a fillip in doggedly communicating and advancing the case in various parts of the world on our stance, as it relates to the aggression that was taking place on our borders. Our case was communicated not only through Heads of Government meetings, but other fora such as the Commonwealth Trades Union Congress forum which yearly brings together trade union leaders during the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Annual Conference.

Representatives of Guyana’s trade unions strengthened the country’s case at this forum by the utilisation of strategies built on the universal principle of solidarity, to lobby and gain the support of other external trade unionists and their organisations, which constituted support of the Commonwealth working-class for the protection of Guyana’s sovereignty.
Our presence in the Commonwealth and historical modus operandi has secured Guyana’s pre-eminence, solidarity of member states and the institution against every external aggression. Guyana has seen the Commonwealth not only as a place for speeches, but also the forum where world decisions are influenced, shaped and refined, consistent with the goals, dreams and aspirations of its members and their peoples. And where the world has shifted to sustainable development and a number of issues such as human rights, climate change and poverty are important tools in measuring growth, the Commonwealth is another platform for the English-speaking Caribbean, including Guyana, to pursue its collective agenda for the benefit of its peoples.