The focus continues to be on climate change going into the second day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting as the media awaits a joint statement to be released late Saturday afternoon.
The statement will be unveiled by Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
There is also a possibility that the leaders will also make a joint statement on Rwanda, which has applied for membership in the Commonwealth Group of Nations. If this statement is agreed upon, it will be released later Saturday afternoon.
Unlike many of the Commonwealth nations, Rwanda is a former French colony, but the nation's ties with France have been strained since its 1994 civil war in which ethnic Hutus committed acts of genocide against ethnic Tutsis, while the international community was slow to intervene. In recent years, Rwanda has sought closer ties with the English speaking world, including the current application for membership in the Commonwealth.
But it is the climate change statement that most will be anticipating as this year's CHOGM is widely being seen as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Ahead of this event, the CHOG have invited Danish Prime Minister E.H. Lars Rasmussen, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to address delegates on the issue.
President Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday unveiled a joint proposal that would see developing nations receive $10 billion USD in financial assistance to lower carbon emissions over the next three years. With this proposal on the table and the Copenhagen talks looming, all eyes will be on the wording of the CHOG statement.
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