Commonwealth Secretary-General to visit Mozambique and Mauritius
7 January 2005
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon is visiting Mozambique and Mauritius from 10 January 2005. In Mozambique he will meet with the President, President-elect and the President of the National Elections Commission. In Mauritius, he will take part in the International Meeting on Small Island Developing States.
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| The Commonwealth Secretariat, Caribbean Community, Indian Ocean Commission and the Pacific Islands Forum will discuss ways of reducing the impact of disasters. |
It will be Mr McKinnon's first visit to Mozambique since the December 2004 Parliamentary and Presidential Elections.He will meet with President Joaquim Chissano and the President-elect Armando Guebuza to discuss issues of common interest, including preparations for the forthcoming Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Malta in November 2005 and Commonwealth co-operation programmes.
Mr McKinnon will also hold discussions with the President of the National Elections Commission, Rev. Dr Arão Litsure, to discuss the implementation of the recommendations of the Commonwealth Observer Group Report on the December 2004 Election.
In Mauritius, the Secretary-General will take part in the International Meeting on Small Island Developing States. In his address to the meeting, he will highlight the unique vulnerabilities of small states - which constitute nearly two-thirds of Commonwealth membership - and urge immediate action to address them.
"We must be honest and recognise that the international community has not done all it pledged to do for small states a decade ago. Promises are laudable. But they must be underpinned by action, pure and simple," he said.
The Secretary-General will also use this opportunity to call for a strengthening of advance preparedness and responsiveness to natural disasters in the wake of the devastating tsunami which hit parts of the Indian Ocean region recently.
"I will be meeting with the Secretaries-General of the Caribbean Community, the Indian Ocean Commission and the Pacific Islands Forum to examine ways in which we can collectively reduce the future impact of natural disasters by strengthening advance warning and response networks across international borders. This is an important outcome we are expecting from this international meeting" said Mr McKinnon.
While in Mauritius, the Secretary-General will also have a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Mauritius Paul Berenger, who is also Chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Note to Editors
The Secretary-General will be in Mozambique from 11-12 January and in Mauritius from 13-14 January.
The Mauritius International Meeting to Review Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States takes place in Port Louis, Mauritius, from 10-14 January 2005.
The Barbados Programme of Action on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (BPoA) helps to chart a way forward. In 1994, the international community adopted BPoA after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg set a date for a full and comprehensive review to be held in Mauritius this month.
For media enquiries contact Geraldine Goh at +44-7963-135-246
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