Obama coming to Trinidad for CHOGM?

Several non-Commonwealth world leaders are expected to converge on Port of Spain next week at the leaders of the Commonwealth gather for their summit.

And the Trinidad Express is speculating that U.S. President Barack Obama might drop in along with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapetero, and President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

"A late momentum is developing which could see these major world figures coming to Trinidad and Tobago next week to participate in what would normally be a conference exclusive to Heads of Government of Commonwealth countries," the paper reported on Friday.

The issue that is driving all the world to Port of Spain is climate change.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced Wednesday that the Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon and French President Nicholas Sarkozy will attend.

Ban and the Danish leader are co-hosts of the UN-sponsored climate change conference taking place next month in Copenhagen. Next week's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is the last major international summit before the Copenhagen meeting.

Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon told the Express she prefers not to comment on the reports about other leaders attending the CHOGM.

The paper quoted Chen Yang, Political Affairs attache at the Chinese Embassy in Port of Spain as saying that the office is awaiting a response from China about whether the president will be in Port of Spain.

And the U.S. Embassy public affairs officer, Matthew V. Cassetta, had no official communication that either the president or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be in Trinidad.

Manning told the nation Wednesday that Trinidad and Tobago "has been at the centre of almost frenzied activity among leading nations from both the developed and developing world as we seek to ensure that we take the strongest possible position in preparation for the Copenhagen meeting."

The Express said Government officials believe the hemisphere's leaders consider Trinidad and Tobago to be conducive to discussing the issue of climate change without being distracted with demonstrations and other such activities.

"That is the feeling among leaders in the international community and it is a tribute to the management of that conference as well as the country’s leadership," the paper quoted an unnamed official as saying.