Australian Prime Minister visits Marlborough House

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma met with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at Marlborough House in London on 7 April 2008.

It was their first meeting since both assumed their respective offices.

The leaders discussed issues of current Commonwealth concern, including some important mandates from the last Commonwealth summit in Uganda and political challenges facing Commonwealth countries.

The Secretary-General reiterated his interest in and support for small states, noting that “small states have vulnerability and fragility”, but that one can make “quick progress there with good development programmes because of their small physical sizes and limited populations”.

While Secretary-General Sharma reiterated his view that the “South must help the South” in terms of sharing solutions to the challenges of development, he paid tribute to Australia’s leading role in assisting the Pacific Island States in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Mr Sharma noted that meeting the MDGs by the 2015 deadline remains a challenge for many small island states in particular.

The Secretary-General also raised the issue of the forthcoming Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the end of this month, underscoring the need to get it right with respect to the youth of the Commonwealth, who will live out most of this century.

Youth issues remain a special preoccupation for Mr Sharma, and he will address this meeting and share his vision of what Commonwealth member governments should be doing to create a better future for generations to come.