Commonwealth Secretary-General's statement to Commonwealth High Commissioners accredited to Australia

Thank you so much for coming to meet me. My appreciation to the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade for setting this up and bringing us together. Let me also express enormous gratitude to Australia, our host, for its leadership in the Commonwealth and for its financial support for our work, including for our Member Countries in the Pacific region.

I visit Australia and the region at a time of great turbulence globally. Open disdain and undermining of the rules-based international system; disruptions to the global trading system and supply chains by unilateral imposition of tariffs and a retreat from development cooperation as countries take on unanticipated responsibilities for global security, amid declining growth.

Unconstrained geopolitical competition or the scramble unleashed by the vacuums in global leadership is undermining respect for the values of international cooperation, leading to acute humanitarian situations in places like Sudan. People are bearing the brunt with rising poverty, unmet expectations, diminishing opportunity, cuts to public services and social protection. This is happening in both developing countries and industrialised countries in the Commonwealth. The United Nations recognised this reality when in 2024, it adopted the Pact for the Future.

In fact, a few days ago, at the Munich Security Conference, the US agreed with the German leader that the world order no longer exists.  There was the powerful crystallisation of the world we must recreate when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at Davos weeks ago. It is not just a feeling-we are in unknown territory.

And that is where you come in, as senior Commonwealth diplomats. Because this is your calling. You must be our prophets. Seeing the shape of things to come and getting our policy makers to grasp the urgency of it as well as the possibilities.

Rising above the chaos, as the Commonwealth, to reinforce our democratic values and good governance to deliver the democratic dividend, through trade based on our 21% Commonwealth Advantage and enhanced access to each other’s markets; targeted high impact investments and climate action, especially a renewables revolution.

Massive investments in long distance education for digital skills and entrepreneurship for our youth and their access to funding; and priority focus on women and girls, Small Island Developing States and people living with disability.

We need you to make the strongest case possible that the old paradigm of international cooperation is no longer viable and that shared prosperity requires shared interests. Unless all countries thrive, markets will remain limited, both for businesses and wealth creation.  How successfully you do your work will help influence the mindset change that is needed to make this the Commonwealth’s moment of opportunity.

Many of you here are also accredited to the many small states in the Pacific region. For those states, the international environment, especially its underestimation of vulnerability, is not an abstract geopolitical reality – it is a lived reality, shaping access to finance, trade, climate resilience, and development opportunity every day.

Small states contribute least to global instability, yet bear its heaviest costs. They face tightening global financial conditions, rising debt burdens, accelerating climate impacts, and increasing exposure to trade disruption – all within a system that too often measures resilience using outdated metrics and allocates support too slowly, or on the wrong terms. That is why advocacy for small states, and even more importantly, integrating them into an equitably rewarding Commonwealth market, is even more essential. Small states must be placed at the centre of global reform efforts – on climate finance, debt sustainability, disaster risk, trade inclusion, digital transformation, and ocean governance.

Whether strengthening debt management systems, expanding access to climate finance, supporting clean energy transitions, enhancing trade and digital competitiveness, or shaping global rules in emerging areas such as critical minerals and ocean governance, our focus, as the Commonwealth, is on practical impact where it is needed most.

I was in Fiji last week for a highly successful Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting in Nadi. One of the key decisions Ministers took was to support the recognition of maritime borders affected by sea rise. That is a powerful statement of solidarity and equity, with important economic and security implications.

I am committed to working with Member Countries, especially in this region, to establish a Commonwealth Pacific Office, in recognition of the challenges faced by Pacific countries in fully benefitting from Commonwealth membership [currently constrained by distance, time difference, lack of diplomatic representation in London].

Let me conclude by sharing with you the source of my confidence. Our institution, the Commonwealth has an exceptional record of solving the most difficult issues, such as Apartheid. Our shared values and common history has shaped our ability to find consensus. That spirit of consensus building has never been more needed at this time when a major course correction is needed for the sake of our people and planet.

I thank you greatly for what you do to strengthen ties between Governments, people and businesses in the Commonwealth. I hope you will do even more to become the voices of a new Commonwealth that works for all our 2.7 billion people.