Commonwealth message to G20 leaders: ‘All eyes are on you’

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has called on G20 leaders to look beyond their own interests as the 'T20': "the Trustees of the whole world's interests".

Prior to their meeting in London on 2 April 2009, he called on them to pursue an inclusive agenda to ensure that the outcomes of the Summit benefit millions of people around the world who have lost jobs and livelihoods due to the economic downturn.

In a statement issued with Abdou Diouf, Secretary-General of La Francophonie, Mr Sharma noted that while 90 per cent of global GDP will be represented at the G20 table, "what will be missing is 90 per cent of the world's countries".

"All eyes are on the G20 leaders. The simple fact of globalisation dictates that all countries, the world over, have been affected by a tsunami of crises - of finance and food, of energy and the environment. Equally, all have an interest in what goes into the G20 meeting, and what comes out of it," the Secretary-General said.

Mr Sharma stressed that G20 leaders need to deliver on the policy co-ordination that can halt the economic slide, help bridge the funding gap to meet developing countries' most immediate and critical needs, and turn their backs on protectionism and finally back a global trade deal.

He also called for the credible and sustainable reform of international financial institutions "built to serve another age". He said: "They need to be reformed, on the basis of principles shared and enacted by all".

In calling for a renewed global resolve to meet global challenges, he ended: "A new multilateralism is an imperative, not an option."

Click here for the full text of the statement

Note to editors

The Commonwealth of some 1.9 billion people numbers 53 countries, with 5 countries in the G20 and 48 outside.

For media enquiries, please contact Eduardo del Buey, Spokesperson and Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Commonwealth Secretariat at Tel: +44(0) 774 045 0901 or e-mail: e.delbuey@commonwealth.int

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Related News:

• London Summit 2009