INDIA AND THE COMMONWEALTH
INDIA AND THE COMMONWEALTH: LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE TO CONNECT, INNOVATE AND TRANSFORM India has been contributing to the activities of the Commonwealth and its various entities since inception. Be it promoting and strengthening democratic institutions, rule of law, good governance or human rights, India has been consistently endeavouring in tandem with other member nations of the Commonwealth to propagate these values and principles. While engaging with other members in the Commonwealth fraternity for expansion and diversification of this multilateral forum, India has expanded its relations with fellow Commonwealth member countries in trade and commerce, educational and cultural fields. India is a strong voice in the Commonwealth on critical issues like gender justice, climate change and sustainable development. India has played an important role in the Commonwealth’s principal benchmarks, like the setting up of its Secretariat in 1965, the Singapore Declaration of 1971, Harare Declaration of 1991 and establishing the Ministerial Action Group in 1995. It is the fourth largest contributor to the overall Commonwealth budgets. It is also the fifth largest contributor to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation. India has played an active and constructive role in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Recently in 2018, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the CHOGM Summit held in London, UK. The slew of funds for development and capacity building projects that he announced during the CHOGM meeting, speak volumes about the bond India shares with the Commonwealth. From our experience, multilateral bodies like the Commonwealth help in cementing nations’ ties. Today, to achieve sustainable peace and prosperity we must all collaborate to address common contemporary global challenges. The theme for
Hon. Shri Om Birla
the CHOGM 2021, which has recently been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is ‘Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming’. The issues of climate change and boosting trade, that have been selected for discussions in the forum, are topical and of significant concern to humanity. The Parliament of India continues to maintain links with the Commonwealth through the exchange of delegations, goodwill missions, etc., and is actively engaged through the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) India Region, the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network and the Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC). India hosted the CHOGM in 1983 and the annual CPA Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in 1957, 1975, 1991 and 2007, and the 20th CSPOC in 2010. The timeless values of freedom, democracy, rule of law, human rights and sustainable development have been adopted, reaffirmed and advanced, time and again, in various communiqués and declarations of the CPA and the Commonwealth. India will be hosting the 28th CSPOC in 2026. Major Issues and Challenges Globalisation, political, socio-cultural, scientific and economic cooperation in different areas involving trade, commerce and investment has made the world more connected, thereby providing unlimited opportunities. This has led to development. But we have to be mindful that pursuit of development has had its implications on ecology and the environment. Global warming, desertification and environmental degradation have acquired serious dimensions now. The situation now calls for coordinated and concerted global
was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the 17th Lok Sabha in the Parliament of India on 19 June 2019. He has been a Member of Parliament for Kota-Bundi parliamentary constituency since 2014 and is the current CPA India Regional Chairperson. He was previously a Member of the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha (Provincial Assembly) from 2003 to 2014. He has held positions with the youth wing of his party, Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha, as National Vice President, State President and District President. He completed his Master of Commerce at Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University.
136 | The Parliamentarian | 2021: Issue Two | 100 years of publishing
