Political, business, women and youth leaders from all over the Commonwealth will gather in Samoa next week around the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM. They will be led by HM the King, who is the Head of the Commonwealth, accompanied by HM The Queen. The conference will include representation from the organisation’s 56 member countries and the territories associated with them.

The theme resolution is “One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Common Wealth”.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting is preceded by a number of events at which Gibraltar will be represented. The Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia has been invited to speak as a panelist to a plenary session of the Commonwealth Business Forum and to participate also in a round table discussion. Dr Garcia is the Minister with responsibility for developing relations with the Commonwealth. The Forum is described as one which provides an opportunity for high-level dialogue between businesses and Government leaders from the Commonwealth and beyond, to develop stronger partnerships and connections, exchange knowledge and contribute to impactful discussions on promoting sustainable growth.

In addition to this, Ms Cristina Cosquieri and Mr Karim Acolina will join young people from across the Commonwealth at the Commonwealth Youth Forum. They were selected after an essay competition. The Commonwealth Youth Forum, according to the organisers, provides an opportunity for the young people of the Commonwealth to build cross-cultural connections and networks, deliberate on youth-led initiatives addressing emerging issues impacting on young people, consider perspectives to influence decision makers, and ensure young people have a voice and agency in its future. There are 2.7 billion people in the Commonwealth, 60% of whom are under the age of 30.

Prior to their departure, Cristina and Karim discussed their participation with past delegates to this event Ms Adriana Lopez and Mr Jared Peralta, who will attend with the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. They later also met separately with the Deputy Chief Minister.

The Commonwealth Women’s Forum and the Commonwealth People’s Forum will also take place at the same time, along with over thirty different side event seminars on a wide range of current topics from Human Rights to Climate Change, to Future Proofing Small States and Empowering Youth through AI and Digitalisation.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the four Commonwealth Forums, and the other parallel events will take place in Apia, Samoa from 21-26 October. Gibraltar is a part of the extended family of the Commonwealth through the membership of the United Kingdom and was also represented in the last two editions which took place in London in 2018 and then in Kigali, Rwanda in 2022. This year, a number of Commonwealth organisations are meeting or have met in the southern hemisphere, including the Heads of Government in Samoa, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Australia and the Commonwealth Youth Parliament in New Zealand.