PM Spencer Meets with Maltese Foreign Minister on Selection of New Commonwealth Secretary General
September 05, 2007
ST. JOHN'S, Antigua
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Prime Minister Spencer and Foreign Minister Michael Frendo of Malta.
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Hon. Michael Frendo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta, flew into Antiguaon Monday for a meeting with Prime Minster the Honourable Baldwin Spencer. The Maltese foreign minister is a candidate in the race for Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.
Commonwealth Heads of Government will hold their biennial summit in Uganda in November and they will be called on to choose a new Secretary-General to replace incumbent Don McKinnon. McKinnon, a New Zealander, will demit office having served two terms.
Two other candidates are already in the race and have made their rounds of CARICOM member states to rally support for their candidacies. Mohan Kaul, president of the Commonwealth Business Council, met with PM Spencer recently and outlined his vision of the Commonwealth. Karmalesh Sharma, the high commissioner of India in London, is also a candidate and met with PM Spencer in late August.
While many in the Commonwealth acknowledge that it is Asia's turn to field a candidate for Secretary-General, the candidacy of Malta is seen as a small-states candidacy. The majority of the membership of the Commonwealth comprises small states.
During his meeting with PM Spencer, Mr. Frendo recalled the last Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting which was held in Malta in 2005. PM Spencer pointed out that he had been very impressed with his first CHOGM experience and he praised the Maltese efforts in organizing the meeting.
In Frendo's view the Commonwealth should be seen as a development organization that would leverage resources to address the development needs of its members. He said that the Commonwealth needs to engage more with regional organizations such as CARICOM.
Mr. Frendo has been a member of the Malta parliament for twenty years, and has spent the past ten years as a minister.
PM Spencer emphasized that the Commonwealth should have a priority development focus while not abandoning the governance and human rights dimension of its agenda. He saw the UN millennium development goals as being an important challenge which the Commonwealth should help its members to meet successfully.
Mr. Spencer informed the foreign minister that CARICOM is seeking consensus on support for one of the candidates for Secretary-General, and that the matter had been discussed at the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in July in Barbados. He anticipated further discussions among the Heads during a special caucus in Port-of-Spain in mid-September.
Ambassador Colin Murdoch, Permanent Secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs, and Ambassador Anthony Liverpool were a part of the discussions with Prime Minister Spencer and Foreign Minister Frendo.
