THE 27th Samoa Commonwealth States meeting has formally opened on 21 October 2024 at Apia; October 21 to 24, 2024 days are devoted to ministerial meetings, events; for heads of government of commonwealth nations, 54 in all, two days 25 and 26 October 2024 have been specified; Samoa is a Pacific Island, had got independence from New Zealand; in the history of commonwealth Samoa venue is the first one; British King Charles III is scheduled to address this big meeting; the core agenda of the meeting is prime emphasis on bettering the economic lot of the youth and the women in the commonwealth bloc of nations. Samoan prime minister Mata’afa in her 21 October 2024 inaugural address has stressed up-valuing women welfare and status.
Government of Pakistan will be represented by its foreign minister Ishaque Dar in this historic assemblage; from Islamabad’s angle of view the commonwealth meeting is happening almost immediately after the successful SCO conference in Pakistan’s capital attended by all nine permanent members besides observer-status members; most likeable aspect of the SCO meeting was all-happy-mood of the participants, leaving behind a healthy trail to reinforce the inter-SCO nations mutual politico-econo-diplomatic ties. Surely the SCO meeting’s practical aspects will be of an added significance for Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaque Dar attending for the first time such a globally cross-nations moot in Samoa. An immediate need of Pakistan is to refresh its relations with the nations of the world keeping sharply in view an air of uncertainty at the international level; two wars – in Palestine and in Ukraine – have impacted the relational equity among nations at the global plane. Sorrowful aspect of these conflicts is that despite a number of UN attempts no halt is visible in the ongoing bloodiest flare-ups causing huge human and property losses; this unresolved bloodiest scenario has generated fresh fears at the weakness of international peace organizations and global human rights outfits.
TResonant with current peace bruised atmosphere at the international level is the theme of the 27th Samoa commonwealth meeting; “One Resilient Common Future – Transforming Our Common Wealth” envisioning respect for human rights, democracy and the supremacy of law. Tackling climate change is also part of the agenda. All eyes are focused on the address of the British King Charles III as Head of the Commonwealth as the Samoa meeting is the first of commonwealth heads of government in a Pacific island state.
Another major event of the meeting is the election of new commonwealth secretary general; the incumbent secretary general Patricia Scotland will vacate her seat in year 2024; three candidates for the post of commonwealth secretary general – Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, foreign minister of Ghana, Mamadou Tangara foreign minister of Gambia and Lesotho senator Joshua Septiba – will be competitors.
A ticklish point has arisen: reportedly all the three candidates have demanded financial reparations or reparative justice for the countries affected by slavery or colonialism. Slavery reparations point forms meeting agenda denied by the UK as she is not considering making any “reparation payments”. British government has clearly announced there shall be no apology for Britain’s role in the Atlantic slave trade.
Whatever others may wrangle about Pakistan should take this Samoa commonwealth meeting an opportunity for her to cull out meaningfulness from partner-participants in the domains of economic development and Pakistan’s additional labour adjustments in the commonwealth bloc of nations. Youth joblessness in Pakistan has gone horrendous from all social and demographic angles. Rectification becomes first priority for government of Pakistan.
—The writer, a retired Secretary in AJK Govt, is a senior columnist, based in Rawalpindi.
