‘The
Commonwealth is predominantly an organisation of small states’
- Kamalesh Sharma
India’s
High Commissioner to UK Kamalesh Sharma has become the Commonwealth
Secretary General. Says the newly-appointed Secretary
General
that the single most important
element in his selection was the feeling that the time had come for Asia
to offer a candidate for the prestigious Commonwealth position. “I
believe in collective solutions to collective problems…. I believe in
the unity and shared destiny of the global community. We’re in it
together,” he said in an exclusive interview to Asian Affairs.
Excerpts
from the interview:
The
social agenda cannot be confused with the need for resources on the other
side. Private capital, by and large, doesn’t move into the social agenda
because we cannot show much profit in it. At the same time, there needs to
be progress on things like literacy, empowerment of women, reduction of
infant mortality and maternal mortality, all of this complex which is now
described loosely as MDGs, or Millennium Development Goals. The great
thing about MDGs is that they have given a common goal to international
institutions, regional institutions and national institutions to work
towards.
One
of the strengths of the Commonwealth is that it is predominantly an
organisation of small states. More than 30 states are small states. These
are vulnerable states and their special concerns have been addressed. The
first formal declaration of this was at the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting) in Delhi in 1983 when the declaration was adopted on
the needs of the small states.
I
think the Commonwealth has a clearer culture, compared to the UN, about
the needs of the small states. The small states have to be helped in
trading negotiations. Look at their dilemma now, they’re negotiating
with Europe on economic partnership agreements, they’re negotiating in
the Doha Round and at least some of the countries in the Caribbean are
negotiating in the economic spheres of the Americas.
There
are three groups that are regionally very well identified in the
Commonwealth. One of course is Africa, the largest group. Another is the
Caribbean. The third is the Pacific Rim states. Many of them have
collective considerations as well.
I
have always supported that and, indeed, we have done a lot for the
Commonwealth in recent years in this direction. For instance, our
contribution to the Technical Cooperation Fund, CFTC, increases by £50,000
every year automatically and we will keep increasing it until we reach a
million pounds, which is a lot, and then we shall review it. India have
made by far the highest contribution to something called Commonwealth
Connects, which in a nutshell is how to apply a digital bridge to a
development divide.
One
of the developments over the last few decades has been the enormous
increase in capacity in countries of the South. The Commonwealth offers a
perfect platform where these can be made available, if we have the right
structures, to developing countries, together with what can be made
available from the North.
If
we believe that the world should not be divided into North and South and
there should be positive engagement of the North with the South, you must
follow the same argument between those countries of the South that have
greater evolving ability and other countries of the South.
There
was another project I was following, which was to introduce a line of
partnership assistance for the smaller states, which could be worked from
New York. Many of the states have only one or two missions abroad and New
York is where, say, the Pacific Rim countries have the largest number of
missions.
In
New York and Geneva. I was spokesman for developing countries in UNCTAD in
the Uruguay Round. I
In
New York I took the lead in something called Financing for Development and
chaired that group. The idea was simple, that if resources are an issue,
there should be adequate volume of resources; the two belong together.
Whether
it’s trade or debt or development assistance, all of this becomes a key
factor in how well developing countries can do. The idea was that we
should launch something useful for the world and not just do the sign
posting. The Secretary General was enthusiastic and we held the big
side-event on this. It’s called YES, the Youth Employment Summit.
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