Canadian PM boycotts CHOGM but corporate leaders to attend business summit
Canadian Premier Stephen Harper is boycotting next month’s Commonwealth Summit in Colombo but his country is among 65 others attending a business summit being held alongside the main conference, officials said in Colombo on Wednesday.
CEO of the Commonwealth Business Council Dr. Mohan Kaul told reporters that Canada has confirmed its participation at the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF) being held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM).
The microphone saga. Pic by Mangala Weerasekera. (See story below)
Around 450 heads of governments, ministers and business leaders of Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries including UK, Australia, Canada, India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Middle East will attend the conference along with Sri Lankan counterparts selected by chambers of commerce of Sri Lanka, he said. Dr. Kaul said the Canadian government’s decision to boycott CHOGM would not deter Canadian business leaders’ participation in the business forum.
The politics of countries will not affect the activities of CBF which is a premier business event in the Commonwealth bringing together Heads of Government, Ministers, and top business leaders from around the world and will be attended by over a thousand delegates, he pointed out.
Responding to a question raised by a journalist on the Canadian PM’s recent threat of withdrawing funding for the Commonwealth, Dr. Kaul said that the budget for the business forum and other meetings had been approved and finalised last month and Canada was among the member countries who have given their consent for funding of the Commonwealth Secretariat for the next five years including the upcoming summit.
Dr. Kaul said that investors of several countries have made around US$2 billion worth of expressions of interest even before the business forum and the conference will be a great opportunity for Sri Lanka to enlighten the world about the investment potential in the island.
Addressing the same media conference in Colombo, External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said that Canada stands alone in its stance against participating in the CHOGM in Sri Lanka.
Canada, and not Sri Lanka, will get isolated by this decision, he said, adding that the commonwealth nations had overwhelmingly pledged their support to Sri Lanka in attending the CHOGM.
Minister Peiris said Sri Lanka is dismayed by Canada’s attitude since it is wrong to use domestic issues as a reason to boycott the summit and the Canadian PM is isolated in his decision as other member countries do not endorse his views.
He noted that the best response to the Canadian PM’s decision was the statement made by the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott that rubbishing old friends will not help make new ones.
He stressed that the Commonwealth is not a forum to pass judgment on each other’s problems and it has never been the tradition of the Commonwealth.
| Case of the microphone fiasco
Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris had to seek the assistance of his staff thrice as the microphones went dead when he began his opening remarks to journalists in another dis-organised media conference conducted by the Foreign Ministry in Colombo to brief journalists on the CBF event on Wednesday. Such technical faults even for a few minutes should not be repeated at the upcoming CHOGM media conferences and other meetings to be held with the participation of foreign dignitaries and foreign journalists, several journalists, who were there to cover the event, he said. |