?Pri­or Be­har­ry

A UK gov­ern­ment min­is­ter is say­ing that the Com­mon­wealth is an "un­par­al­leled in­ter­na­tion­al as­so­ci­a­tion" and will sur­vive and thrive for an­oth­er 60 years. The com­ments were made by Baroness Glenys Kin­nock, the min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Caribbean and the Com­mon­wealth, who is in Trinidad at­tend­ing the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM). Kin­nock made the com­ment on the 60th an­niver­sary of the Com­mon­wealth and on the eve of CHOGM as well as in the wake of a re­port on a glob­al pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion on the Com­mon­wealth which was con­duct­ed by the Roy­al Com­mon­wealth So­ci­ety.

The re­port, Com­mon What–Emerg­ing Find­ings of the Com­mon­wealth Con­ver­sa­tion, stat­ed that the Com­mon­wealth has a "wor­ry­ing­ly low pro­file" among the pub­lic. Kin­nock said it was cor­rect to de­bate the fu­ture of the body. "At 60 years old, there are some who take the view that it is ir­rel­e­vant–or worse, draw­ing its last breath," she said. "I be­lieve that this un­par­al­leled in­ter­na­tion­al as­so­ci­a­tion will not on­ly sur­vive but has to thrive for the next 60 years and be­yond. "That is why the po­ten­tial of the Com­mon­wealth must be ex­plored and ex­ploit­ed as nev­er be­fore.

"In an era when all ma­jor prob­lems are glob­al but at­tempt­ed so­lu­tions are too of­ten in­stinc­tive­ly na­tion­al, it has a unique role to play." She said Com­mon­wealth mem­bers have made a com­mit­ment to free­dom and democ­ra­cy, to the erad­i­ca­tion of pover­ty and in­equal­i­ty, and to peace, the rule of law and op­por­tu­ni­ty for all. "This is all the more pow­er­ful a com­mit­ment giv­en the di­ver­si­ty of our pop­u­la­tion, which in­cludes 800 mil­lion Hin­dus, 500 mil­lion Mus­lims and 400 mil­lion Chris­tians.