Commonwealth should embody Gandhi's vision Rambachan tells foreign ministers

In one of his final meetings in his hectic working trip to New York, Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Surujrattan Rambachan chaired an important Commonwealth session.

Dr. Rambachan sat in the chair for the ninth annual Commonwealth Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

His chairmanship of that meeting was as a result of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar being the chairperson of the 54-member nation Commonwealth.

Dr. Rambachan said the meeting was “most significant” since it gave the Commonwealth the opportunity “to discuss issues of Commonwealth concern, thereby adding value in a UN context and strengthening our partnership with that umbrella organisation.”

He noted that the Commonwealth has a membership of about 30 per cent of the world’s population.

He said that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals “remain distant and elusive targets for many of our member States.”

Dr. Rambachan added: “Even today, poverty is rampant in many of our societies.

“The challenge of climate change still looms large, especially for small island developing States.

“Terrorism constantly finds new forms and manifestations.”

He stated that globalisation presents “the unique challenge of creating communities and a world community where people of different ethnicities, religious commitments and ideologies can live and work together.”

Commonwealth nations are among the most diverse in the world, Dr. Rambachan said.

But that added that while “technology has brought us together”, it “does not provide the values for inspiring us to live harmoniously.”

In that respect he cited Mahatma Gandhi for the manner in which he sought to create inclusive communities.

Gandhi’s communities included the poor and outcasts, he stated.

Rambachan said: “He was visionary in imagining a community where men and women are equal. It included persons from the world’s diverse religions.”

He observed that Gandhi had influence Nelson Mandela and other great minds and obtained independence for India from Britain.

“The inclusive societies he created in his ashrams in South Africa and India must inspire what we aim for as national and global communities,” said Rambachan.

“The Commonwealth should embody this vision.”

-Reporting by KEN ALI