Commonwealth Secretary General To Visit Wolverhampton

The Commonwealth Secretary General Rt Honourable Don McKinnon is to visit Wolverhampton on 3rd March hard on the heels of the Canadian High Commissioner visit last week.

This high profile and important visitor to the City will be welcomed by the Mayor who has been negotiating with the Commonwealth for almost a year to enable the visit to take place.

Councillor Bateman said Wolverhampton benefits greatly from visits of this sort. It is a measure of Wolverhampton's growing importance in the region. The Secretary General is an enormously busy man making many visit's overseas . Over the last week he has been on the Asian Sub Continent where as Commonwealth Secretary-General Mr McKinnon called on Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during an official visit to India from 13 to 16 February 2006. They discussed major outcomes of the November 2005 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta.

The Secretary-General also expressed appreciation to the Prime Minister for India's continued commitment to the Commonwealth, with its pledge of one million Euros (£700,000) to the Special Commonwealth Fund for the Digital Divide and an increased contribution to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation.

Mr McKinnon noted that India would be hosting the annual conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in 2007 and the 19th Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Dr Singh stated India was keen to strengthen the Commonwealth and reaffirmed his country's support for the 53-member association. The Prime Minister said that although he was unable to attend the Malta CHOGM, he commended the meeting for producing good outcomes which had enhanced the relevance of the Commonwealth.

The Secretary-General also held talks with the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath; the Minister for Youth Affairs, Sports and Panchayati Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar; and the Minister of State for External Affairs, Anand Sharma. He met the Speaker of the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament), Somnath Chatterjee, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), Jaswant Singh.

While in New Delhi, Mr McKinnon also addressed the opening of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association's biennial general conference on 15 February (see separate article).

The Secretary-General travels to Bangladesh on 16 February and to Pakistan on 17 February.

As You can see to invite a man of his importance to Wolverhampton is a coup indeed, I will be giving further details of the arrangements over the next few day's."

BIOGRAPHY
The Rt Hon Donald C McKinnon was elected Commonwealth Secretary-General at the November 1999 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Durban, South Africa. He assumed office on 1 April 2000 following a long and distinguished political career in New Zealand where Mr McKinnon was the longest serving Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

He also served as Deputy Prime Minister (1990 to 1996), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (1990-1999) and Leader of the House of Representatives (1992-1996).

Mr McKinnon became a member of the Privy Council in 1992.