International gatherings good for our country
GIVEN all the political turmoil in the latter part of this week, I am focusing this column on the important international meetings that have been held over the past couple of weeks, and positive news.
The Commonwealth Combined Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was held in Rwanda.
The Commonwealth is built on the shared traditions of its members to promote human rights, international development, and trade It really was a pleasure to see CHOGM finally take place having been delayed twice due to Covid-19 – particularly in this Platinum Jubilee year as we know the Commonwealth is so important to the Queen and with two new members joining.
I was pleased to see Rwanda hosting the event bringing Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, to the forefront. Rwanda joined the Commonwealth in 2009, the second state, after Mozambique, to join without any direct colonial ties with Britain.
Given the terrible Rwandan genocide in 1994, Rwanda is now a regional success story and a rapidly developing nation. Its government has provided key insights into areas that they are committed to developing, including compulsory human rights training for police and the strengthening of a free press, along with freedom of association and opinion.
Events like CHOGM help to expand economic possibilities for Britain and we have signed free trade or economic partnership agreements with 33 Commonwealth members since leaving the EU. Our familiar legal and administrative systems, combined with the English language, are said to knock 21 per cent off the cost of trade between Commonwealth members. Many constituents write to me about our trade with the Commonwealth and this event helps cement the opportunities for us. The Commonwealth was not, sadly, united against Putin’s aggression in the Ukraine; however, the Nato Summit in Madrid was united with the alliance, agreeing to admit Finland and Sweden into Nato.
With Nato’s article 5 (an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies) this puts paid to Putin’s claim that his attack on Ukraine would force Nato away from Russia.
With these new members there will actually be a doubling of the length of Nato’s border with Russia.
The G7 meeting was also a success in terms of steadfast support for Ukraine. The G7 has pledged nearly $30 billion of financial support for Ukraine this year, and agreed to tighten sanctions on Russia.
The UK will join America, Japan and Canada to ban the import of Russian gold, which previously raised more export revenues than anything else, except hydrocarbons.
An important week internationally.
We have signed free trade or economic partnership agreements with 33 Commonwealth members.