“The Chair in Office President Maithripala Sirisena did a wonderful job to promote Commonwealth ideals,” said the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Dr Kamlesh Sharma. 

He was addressing a joint press conference with Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the CHOGM Media Center in Valetta.

Dr Sharma said that President Sirisena’s total commitment to promote commonwealth principles such as democracy, human rights and accountability is exceptionally good. “President Sirisena, as Chair in Office of the Commonwealth, not only extended the secretariat all possible cooperation, but in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly devoted a substantial time to promote the Commonwealth principles,” Secretary General added.

Sri Lankan President took his responsibilities as Chair in Office very committedly and seriously and his work is not yet over, he is coming here too to hand over the Chair to Malta, Dr Sharma pointed out. It is indeed a great pleasure to work with him, he said.

Dr Sharma announced that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will be in Malta for the Commonwealth summit which will be held at the historic Fort St Angelo tomorrow. The UN chief will be addressing a session on climate change, which is expected to take centre stage during this biennial summit.

The event, which brings together 53 Heads of State and government from across the globe, could have an influence on the Paris summit on climate change scheduled to take place a week later.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said after he takes over as Chair in Office from President Sirisena he would work with the vision of making the organization a people’s commonwealth, rather than a Commonwealth of States. He added that the Commonwealth countries should show a political will in favour of sustainable development.

Source: President’s Media Division