As the BA flight touched down in Gatwick on a clear spring morning 18 months ago, it brought home to me the odyssey on which I and my small team in the High Commission were embarking.  The purpose for my visit was to begin the preparations that will lead us to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain in November this year, and The Queen’s State Visit.  The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary will be playing major roles in both events.

The Commonwealth is 60 years old this year.  Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is Head of the Commonwealth.  With 53 independent member states, the beginnings of the modern Commonwealth are generally recognised to have begun with the London Declaration of 1949.  The Commonwealth is serviced by the Commonwealth Secretariat based in Lancaster House in London and headed by the Secretary General, currently Mr Kamalesh Sharma.  The Commonwealth operates to core values that include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance and the rule of law, multilateralism and free trade.  The main decision-making body of the Commonwealth are the biennial meetings of Heads of Government.
18 months on from my journey to London, and with less than 3 months to go until the start of CHOGM, the personal contacts I made during that first visit have served us well as preparations have progressed to the detailed phase.  The High Commission enjoys close working relationships with Buckingham Palace, No 10 Downing Street, the Commonwealth Secretariat and other Commonwealth institutions as well, of course, with colleagues in the various parts of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dealing with practical aspects and policy angles of CHOGM.

We have established a dedicated Unit in the High Commission staffed by 10 volunteer Foreign Office staff and 3 staff from Trinidad who have been recruited especially for the Summit and the State Visit.  An additional accountant has been recruited and trained to work on Foreign Office accounting systems to deal with the complex financial arrangements that have been put into place.  An additional driver has been working with us for some months.  Our IT system has been updated and considerably expanded and additional communications equipment has been brought in.  All the facilities needed by a modern office have been installed.  Gradually, more and more of the existing resources of the High Commission have been diverted to the task of ensuring that these two major events run as smoothly as we can manage and bring credit to Britain’s relationship with the Commonwealth and with Trinidad and Tobago specifically.

Throughout all this period of momentous internal change, the High Commission has maintained the highest level of essential services to British Nationals, to British companies seeking business with, and investment in, Trinidad and Tobago, and to those requiring visas for the United Kingdom.  We have maintained our collaboration with the T & T Government on defence and security issues, counter narcotics work, climate change and environmental matters and judicial reform.

The High Commission’s partnership with the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago has traditionally been close.  That collaboration has grown substantively to a higher level as the High Commission and planners in the T & T administration have worked all hours to put into place the building blocks for a successful CHOGM and State Visit.  The Office of the Prime Minister (the National Secretariat), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the T & T Defence Forces and many others, too many to name, have come together to form effective partnerships with one aim; to plan for a successful CHOGM.

Success will be measured by the outcomes of a CHOGM that will bring together national positions on important international issues such as climate change and institutional reform and that will benefit all peoples of the Commonwealth.  It should also be a CHOGM that will enhance the reputation of the sister islands of Trinidad and Tobago through the world’s media that will be represented in Port of Spain and elsewhere to cover the various events including the Peoples’ Forum, the Business Forum and the Youth Forum.

All of this would not have been possible without teamwork.  Teamwork within the High Commission; teamwork between the High Commission and our partners in T & T; teamwork between resident High Commissioners in Port of Spain; and teamwork between those of us here and colleagues in London.  My thanks to them all.

By Eric Jenkinson OBE, British High Commissioner