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Thursday, October 28, 2011 - 05.40 GMT |
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CHOGM 2011 opens |
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The 22nd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting began at conference and exhibition centre in Perth, Australia this morning under the theme of ‘Building National and Global Resilience’.
Queen Elisabeth the 2nd was the chief guest of the inaugural ceremony.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa participated in the inaugural session representing Sri Lanka.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was appointed as the chairperson of the Commonwealth organisation at the meeting. She will hold the position till the next commonwealth summit which is to be held in Sri Lanka in 2013.
Addressing the opening session the Queen said the results of the meeting would have a global impact" and that they would be "positive and enduring.
The opening event was also addressed by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma and outgoing chair and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the world had changed and the Commonwealth needed to change too.
"So as the Commonwealth journeys towards its centenary, it is time for renewal," she told her fellow leaders and the gathered crowd.
CHOGM 2011 brings together more than 54 world leaders representing approximately one-quarter of the world's countries and one-third of the world's population.
The three-day meeting of Commonwealth leaders will be from October 28-30.
Ordinary sessions of CHOGM began on October 20.
Every two years, Commonwealth leaders meet at CHOGM to discuss global warming, food security, sustainable development and many other challenges occurred at local and international level and to agree on collective policies and initiatives. The leaders will also focus attention on the financial recession currently faced by many countries in the world.
The first CHOGM was held in 1971 in Singapore, and there have been twenty-one held in total: the most recent in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.
Sri Lanka is a founding member of the CHOGM.
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