Your Grace, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Honorable Ministers, partners, colleagues, friends, fellow citizens of our beloved Commonwealth.
As the torch passes from the land of a thousand hills and the tender and, I must say, loving care of our outgoing Chair-in-Office, President Paul Kagame, to the guardianship of the Big Blue Pacific, I want to take this opportunity to thank him, on behalf of our whole family, for his skillful stewardship and the generosity of his government and the people of Rwanda.
I also want to warmly thank the Prime Minister, the government, and the people of Samoa for welcoming us to the beautiful, enchanting islands of Samoa -
a place that reminds us of the interconnectedness of our world, the richness of our diversity, and the strength of our unity. I’ve spoken to so many in the last few days, and I wonder how many overstayers the Prime Minister will now have, because everybody is saying they have found their village where they belong.
This is a very special experience for all of us. And I want to say something very simple to all members of our family, our 'Aiga': Thank you. Thank you for your friendship, thank you for your partnership, thank you for your outstanding work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity and the privilege of serving you as your sixth Secretary-General. We have been through a lot, and I’m proud of what we have achieved.
In April 2016, I stood before the people of the Commonwealth for the first time and shared our collective hope and determination, shaped by our Commonwealth Charter and the historic global agreements on climate change and sustainable development reached the previous year.
The goals of those agreements remain our goals today, as we strive for ever greater resilience, with our young people at our very heart. Together with clear-eyed, decisive and effective reform, we have turned that tide. Our working practices are smart, digitalised, agile and responsive.
Our ability to bring people and nations together is stronger than ever. And our program of practical support and assistance for all our member states is broader, more comprehensive, and more impactful now than at any time in our 75-year history.
Upon the strong foundation of reform, every one of the promises I made to you on taking office has been delivered. Every mandate enacted. Every request for support responded to.
A smart, modern, confident Commonwealth restored as an influential and indispensable force for good in our world. We have delivered this together in the face of immense, unprecedented, and unpredictable challenges which have shaped the experience of the last eight years.
The gravity, scale and complexity of these challenges cannot be underestimated.
The profound intensification of our economic challenges, fueled by destabilising global conflict and a devastating pandemic which shut down our nations and claimed the lives of more than 1.3 million of our Commonwealth brothers and sisters.
The accelerating impacts of climate change and ecological breakdown causing more frequent and devastating disasters, destroying lives and livelihoods, threatening years of hard-won progress. Mounting pressure on the process, culture, and institutions of democracy.
These crises have interconnected, entwined, and worsened one another, amplifying existing inequalities, spreading instability, and bringing forward the tipping point of conflict. And they underline the essential paradox of the world today.
At the same time, more connected and fuller of opportunity than at any other time in human history.
Yet more fragmented, complex, and dangerous than any of us can remember. This reality insists that we are dependent upon each other.
We work together, or we suffer in isolation. It is in this togetherness that the real strength and value of the Commonwealth Aiga can be found.
For 75 years, we have demonstrated an unparalleled ability to confound the painful history which brought us together and sit together as equals. For 75 years, when faced with some of history’s gravest challenges, we have stood tall when it mattered most.
We have kept our connections strong, and as a result, in a changing world, we can defend our shared values and advance our shared interests with clarity and purpose. This is not simply a point of principle. It makes a practical difference to our member states.
In the last eight years, we have done so much: the Blue Charter, the Living Lands Charter, Common Sensing, the issues in relation to our connectivity. We now have inter-Commonwealth trade which is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2026 and $2 trillion by 2030, and intra-Commonwealth investment has tripled since I took office in 2016.
Our young people have been put at the heart of our decision-making, and the Youth Development Index has been a gift from the Commonwealth to the world, now an essential tool in enhancing opportunities.
Our Commonwealth Says No More campaign to end violence against women and girls, the work on making government effective, our partnerships, our innovation, our artificial intelligence work—all of that in the last eight years, together with working across 27 countries with the quiet but essential preventative diplomacy which diffuses tension, prevents conflict, and builds peace.
This is just a snapshot of what we have achieved together, but it all comes down to one word: resilience.
Our theme here in Samoa is resilience, a resilient Commonwealth rooted in and fueled by a technological revolution, which I have been absolutely determined to help our member states understand, master, and harness.
The comprehensive CHOGM 2024, SDG, digital AI, Green Energy performance analysis report for our 56 countries will provide us with a baseline for action.
How we approach this revolution will determine the difference between our future success, or failure.
The challenge is how? Data is not and cannot be all. The answer is people. The answer always is our people.
The contributions that each of our members make, as leaders are able to make. The capacity of our governance, the governments led by the leaders who sit on this platform, wonderful leaders, to use the data to liberate the ingenuity, the imagination, and the potential of our citizens - the citizens you serve.
And our capacity as a Commonwealth to serve you - and one another.
That single word, service, is our defining characteristic.
In 1947, before she became Queen, at the dawn of a new age, her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who served us all for so long as Head of the Commonwealth, with duty and distinction, said this: “If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient Commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing, more free, more prosperous, more happy, and a more powerful influence for good in the world.”
In the same speech, Her Majesty vowed to devote her whole life, whether it be long or short, to our service.
She fulfilled that vow. As we remember her today, we welcome with joy His Majesty, King Charles III, to his first CHOGM as Head of our Commonwealth family.
Your Majesty has been in our thoughts and in our prayers, and we are so happy you are with us today. We take heart from the strength of your Majesty’s commitment and from the wisdom and optimism of your advice when you describe the modern Commonwealth’s "near-boundless potential as a force for good in the world" which you said "demands our highest ambition."
At this CHOGM, we have the opportunity to fulfill that ambition. To stand together as a smart Commonwealth, a connected Commonwealth, a modern, technologically driven, innovative, and successful Commonwealth.
A Commonwealth with the capacity and confidence not merely to face the future, but to build it.
Bringing people together, drawing strength and inspiration from what we share, to create a genuinely durable family of nations in which no one is left behind.
Advancing the goal of a more secure, peaceful, fair and sustainable world for everyone, everywhere. In which we can all enjoy the kind of prosperity which harnesses new technology and is achieved in harmony with nature, safeguarding our unique and only planet for generations to come.
This is our history and our promise, our experience and our aspiration.
And it is the flame of opportunity which I will pass with pride and gratitude to my successor as Secretary General, who will be able to continue the journey of reform, delivery, and leadership.
They will be uniquely blessed, as I have been, to hold this office and to serve our precious Commonwealth.
And I have one piece of advice for them, something that I have learned right here in Samoa. And every Samoan and my dear beloved sister, the Prime Minister, will have to forgive me, because my intonation is terrible. So maybe you will say it with me: “O le ala i le pule o le tautau,” which I think should have said, the path to leadership is service.
I am immensely grateful to Heads of Government for the faith they placed in me in Malta in 2015 and again in Kigali in 2022.
I am grateful for the friendship, the partnership, and the contributions of every member state and every member of our Secretariat.
To work with and serve you all has been the greatest privilege of my life. I will stand with you all, as you continue to strive together, in restless and practical pursuit of the global common good.
I thank you and ask God to bless each of you.
CHOGM 2024
