Commonwealth Secretary-General to visit Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu
12 March 2006
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon - who will be in Sydney, Australia, for Commonwealth Day, and thereafter in Melbourne for the opening of the Commonwealth Games - will travel on to Vanuatu and New Zealand from 16-21 March, before returning to Australia for the second week of the Games.
He is scheduled to meet with Australian Prime Minister Howard; with Prime Minister Ham Lini in Port Vila, Vanuatu; and with Foreign Minister Winston Peters and senior officials at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and NZAID, New Zealand's International Aid and Development Agency, in Wellington.
The Secretary-General will hold discussions on issues that emerged from the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting held in Malta in November 2005, especially on bringing the Doha Development Round of trade talks to a swift and fair conclusion which includes duty and quota-free market access for least developed countries, generous 'aid for trade' arrangements which address both supply side constraints and the need for adjustment support, and special help to be given to vulnerable small economies in all the negotiations.
He will also discuss new Commonwealth work under way in bridging the 'digital divide' between countries advanced in information technology and those that are not, as well as a new initiative to promote understanding and mutual respect between different faiths and cultures. He will also be addressing important regional issues such as the Pacific Plan, the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), and the forthcoming elections in Solomon Islands and Fiji Islands.
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- Commonwealth ICT SummitBetty Mould Iddrisu, Director, Legal and Constitutional Affairs
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