TRINIDAD and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning has announced that 40 heads of state will attend to this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain.

He also disclosed that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen would attend the summit in a rally to come up with a strongest position of climate change ahead of the Copenhagen summit on environment.

According to his address to the nation, Prime Minister Manning said the twin-island nation was ready to host the summit of nations representing one-third of humanity.

“As you are aware, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, the Head of the Commonwealth and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh Majesty, along with forty of the fifty-one active Heads of State and their delegations have confirmed their attendance thus far,” he said. “They, together with a significant number of other dignitaries and officials, will all be in our country for a period of days – holding meetings, moving around, on our roadways and in our buildings, engaging and enjoying our people and places.”

Prime Minister Manning said Commonwealth leaders would hold discussions, among other things, on the critical matter of climate change as the world approached the United Nations meeting next month in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He said the CHOGM under Trinidad and Tobago chairmanship was the last international Summit meeting before that critical meeting on climate change environment.

Prime Minister Manning said this year’s CHOGM had thus become most important to the process aimed at finding consensus on halting the rapid deterioration of the environment.

“We have the opportunity to positively influence its outcome,” he said. “Indeed Trinidad and Tobago is doing its utmost to advance the process that could result in a global agreement on this crucial matter affecting all of humanity. I should also advise you that our country has been at the centre of almost frenzied activity among leading nations from both the developed and developing world as we seek to ensure that we take the strongest possible position in preparation for the Copenhagen meeting.

In this context, and as evidence of this, President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark, the Chairman of the meeting in Denmark and Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon will be on official visits to Trinidad and Tobago to participate in this process.”

Prime Minister Manning said security arrangements throughout must therefore be flawlessly adequate.
Prime Minister Manning also said he would introduce the issue of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) to the CHOGM because it required heightened attention by the international community.

He said NCDs were increasing rapidly worldwide.

Prime Minister Manning said it was forecasted that by 2020 NCDs would account for about 73 per cent of global deaths and 60 per cent of the global burden of diseases.

And according to Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS), Vice-President George Kunda arrived in the Trinidad and Tobago capital, Port of Spain on Monday night to attend the CHOGM which officially opens this Friday.

Vice-President Kunda, who arrived aboard British Airways at 22:40 hours local time, is accompanied by his wife Irene, foreign affairs minister Kabinga Pande, Central Province minister Ackimson Banda and senior private secretary to the Vice-President, Kenneth Ngosa.