70% of Commonwealth are early birds!

Friday, 1 November 2013 03:41 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Cabinet Spokesman Rambukwella says 37 out of 53 member countries have already confirmed participation at CHOGM By Uditha Jayasinghe Thirty-seven countries have confirmed attendance for the main Commonwealth summit taking place in Sri Lanka this month, a top official said yesterday despite uncertainty over the Indian Premier’s participation. Cabinet Spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters that the bulk of the 53 members have already confirmed participation. “At this point 37 countries have confirmed their attendance. With that affirmation it is safe to say that participation for CHOGM (in Sri Lanka) is higher than what was seen in Perth Australia during the previous summit,” he noted. The latest tally comes amidst uncertainty over Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s attendance. Singh has been placed under severe pressure from India’s southern state Tamil Nadu to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka over allegations of human rights violations. However, Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has called on Dr. Singh to attend and even invited him to visit Jaffna during his tour to Sri Lanka. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already pulled out of the summit and announced a cut on funding made by his country to the Commonwealth Secretariat, citing Sri Lanka’s poor human rights track record. British Prime Minister David Cameron and New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully have also announced they will visit the former war torn northern parts of Sri Lanka during the summit to ascertain first-hand the situation faced by tens of thousands of the Tamil population. “New Zealand has a strong interest in the progress being made on reconciliation and devolution in the north and I will report back to the Prime Minister (John Key) on the situation there ahead of the CHOGM Leaders’ Retreat,” McCully said in a statement.

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