The Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday pushed for economic and social development in the Commonwealth with an emphasis on equity amongst its members.Making an intervention in the Foreign Ministers’ meeting here ahead of the summit on Friday, Khurshid said that the Commonwealth should cater to the majority of its members, which were small states and small island states. He also said that the developed members of the Commonwealth should change their consumption patterns to suit the interests of the smaller and less developed members.
“The lifestyle of the developed countries should not compromise the livelihood interests of the poorer and smaller states,” he said.
He appealed to the developed countries to keep up or increase their Overseas Development Assistance programmes.
The theme of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is “Growth and Equity - Inclusive Development,” which had been suggested by Lanka, the host.
Asked if the issue of human rights was being pushed under the carpet, Additional Secretary Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Navtej Sarna, said that there would be a paragraph on human rights in the communiqué to be issued at the end of the summit on November 17.
Sarna said that in recent times the issue of governance had taken centre stage, but for the majority of the member countries, other issues such as economic development, livelihood, climate change, terms of trade and so on, were more critical.
He said that India was all for the inter-governmental initiative to address issues relating to development which the UN had sanctioned. There would be a conference of small island states of the Commonwealth next year.
Maldives on Agenda
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) decided that it would put the Maldives on the “formal agenda” of the summit. Maldives had come in for censure for its efforts to scuttle the Presidential elections.
The Commonwealth summit, which would be held from November 15 to 17, would decide the course of action on the Maldives. India is not a member of the CMAG now.
