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Secretary-General in New Zealand

17 August 2008

Sharma to meet government leaders on first official visit to Wellington

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has arrived in New Zealand for a four-day visit from 16 to 19 August 2008. He will be welcomed at a Mâori ceremony on 18 August to mark his first official visit to New Zealand after taking office in April this year, succeeding former New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don McKinnon.

During his visit to New Zealand, the Secretary-General is expected to meet the Governor-General Anand Satyanand and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Margaret Wilson, who is also President of the New Zealand branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Mr Sharma is also scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Opposition Leader John Key. The Secretary-General is also to hold discussions with senior officials, including the Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Caroline Forsyth and the Executive Director of the New Zealand Agency for International Aid, NZAID. 

'New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters, with whom I will be meeting on 19 August, is one of the two representatives from the Pacific region in the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, CMAG, which monitors adherence to the Commonwealth's fundamental values. The other Pacific representative is the Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea. My visit to the region is a chance to exchange views ahead of the next CMAG meeting on 27 September in New York, which will examine the situation in the Fiji Islands,' said the Secretary-General.

On 18 August, Mr Sharma will deliver the 7th Annual Foreign Policy Lecture to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs.

While in Wellington, the Secretary-General, who is a cricket fan, visited the New Zealand Cricket Museum on 17 August 2008. He donated 60 books on cricket to the museum from his personal collection several years ago as he was impressed by the museum's set-up and its range of displays throughout the decades of the history of cricket in New Zealand.

Following his New Zealand visit, the Secretary-General will also attend the 39th Pacific Islands Forum Summit in Niue from 19 to 21 August. It will be his first attendance at the Forum Summit as Commonwealth Secretary-General.

'My attendance at the Forum Summit in Niue is an opportunity to reaffirm the Commonwealth's abiding commitment to strengthen democracy, economic opportunity, and human development in the region,' said the Secretary-General.  

'The Pacific is a microcosm of the Commonwealth: it has a rich diversity of cultures and societies; its economies comprise a broad spectrum of development; and all the states of the region have subscribed to fundamental human values and democracy,' he added.

'The Commonwealth is active at the global level in supporting practical work to help small states to address climate change challenges, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation. The Commonwealth is also active in exploring and developing new economic opportunities for small states. This sort of work is of direct relevance to the future of Pacific Island states in particular.'