CLIMATE CHANGE TO HEADLINE COMMONWEALTH MEETING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT OF SPAIN 000460 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KGHG KSUM EINT TD SUBJECT: CLIMATE CHANGE TO HEADLINE COMMONWEALTH MEETING PORT OF SP 00000460 001.3 OF 003 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY ¶1. SUMMARY: Trinidad and Tobago hosts the 21st biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) November 27-29 in Port of Spain, with several related forums beginning as early as November 20. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip are to pay a state visit just before the event, and the Queen, as head of the Commonwealth of Nations, will deliver the keynote address at the opening ceremony to be attended by some fifty heads of state, foreign ministers, and other invited guests. ¶2. Climate change is expected to dominate discussions, with the Danish Prime Minister confirmed to attend along with UNSYG Ban Ki Moon and French President Sarkozy. Spanish President Zapatero may also attend, and Brazilian President Lula has been invited but has not confirmed. Prime Minister Manning has implored citizens to be patient with any disruptions caused by CHOGM and he and his Cabinet have been asserting that economic and political benefits will accrue to Trinidad due to its hosting the event. END SUMMARY. PRELUDE TO COPENHAGEN -------------- ¶3. The theme of CHOGM 2009 is "Partnering for a more Equitable and Sustainable Future," and climate change is expected to be high on the agenda. Deputy British High Commissioner Geoff Patton told us November 18 that Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has confirmed his participation in a climate change retreat scheduled for November 27, as a prelude to the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen December 7-18. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's attendance is seen as important to this year's CHOGM, Patton said, because adding his voice to a consensus of the 53 Commonwealth leaders would represent "the rest of the world's population." Patton said that while a CHOGM 2009 general statement has already been circulated and is mostly ironed out, it is very possible that a separate joint statement on climate change will also be released. Separately, one resident High Commissioner told us last week that the GOTT was resisting such a separate statement. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER -------------- ¶4. A state visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip is to take place November 26 -- her Majesty's third such visit to Trinidad and Tobago -- and the Queen, as titular head of the Commonwealth of Nations, will offer the keynote address at the opening session for heads of government on Friday, November 27. Patton confirmed November 18 that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will attend some of the leaders' events, but will likely be on the ground for no more than 50 hours. Patton also confirmed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted an invitation to attend some of the events, noting that the French Embassy, surprised by the late invitation and acceptance, was scrambling to obtain credentials since France is not a member of the Commonwealth and had not been part of the CHOGM planning process. Prime Minister Manning told the nation in a televised address November 18 that Sarkozy, Rasmussen and Ban Ki Moon would attend CHOGM as special guests, and his special assistant told the Charge on November 14 that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had also been invited but had not confirmed. A Commonwealth high commissioner told Charge November 19 that Spanish President Zapatero is also likely to attend, which the GOTT hopes will encourage Lula's participation. We're told the president of China sent his regrets. PORT OF SP 00000460 002.3 OF 003 SECURITY IN PLACE -------------- ¶5. Unlike the wide security perimeter put in place for the April Summit of the Americas that closed a large swath of downtown Port of Spain and required passes for residents and those with business within the zone, CHOGM security will be focused on event venues and specific movements, reducing the number of street closures and, according to security operations managers, minimizing public disruptions. Views of security arrangements differ among our contacts, with some believing they are adequate and others stating chaos lurks below the placid surface. EVENTS -------------- ¶6. A Commonwealth Ministers Action Committee (CMAC) is planned for Wednesday, November 25, followed by a foreign ministers meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, November 25-26. Foreign ministers are expected to discuss human rights issues, and in particular, the plight of internal refugees in Sri Lanka and the recent suspension of Fiji from the Commonwealth after military leaders there failed to announce a timeline for democratic elections. After the official opening session and heads of government plenary on Friday, November 27, three heads of government retreats are planned for Friday and Saturday, November 27-28, covering youth, sustainability, and climate change. We're told the climate change retreat will occur on November 27 to accommodate President Sarkozy's schedule. Rwanda's application to join the Commonwealth will also be considered, as well as other pending membership actions. ¶7. Three public forums will also be held during CHOGM. The Commonwealth Youth Forum begins November 20 and is designed to teach young people about the Commonwealth's values and to provide youth a platform from which they may submit statements to the CHOGM delegations and secretariat. The People's Forum will meet November 22-26 to bring together civil society actors on eight themes, including human rights, environment and climate change, health and HIV/AIDS, democracy and governance, and innovation. Some 800 participants are expected for the Business Forum November 23-26 including the prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, and Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Themes of the business forum include managing climate change, considering new global financial infrastructures, and developing equitable trading practices. PROTESTS -------------- ¶8. Unions and civil society actors in Trinidad and Tobago have announced demonstrations and work stoppages during a five-day period leading up to CHOGM, beginning with a police-sanctioned rally in Port of Spain planned for Sunday, November 21. These groups intend to use the public spotlight to publicize domestic issues of contention, such as crime, rising unemployment, and a perceived lack of good governance. Expectations are that these protests will be small and non-disruptive. PULLING IT TOGETHER, AT THE LAST MINUTE -------------- PORT OF SP 00000460 003.3 OF 003 ¶9. In somewhat typical fashion for Trinidad and Tobago, CHOGM planning seems to be falling into place at the last minute, but not without fits and starts. The venue for the opening ceremony, Trinidad's brand new National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA),is still under construction (the government's private assurances are that "the part we need will be done"). Executives of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce (TTIC) told us in mid-October that ticket sales for the Business Forum were not selling as briskly as hoped, but that they were confident the event would be successful. Perhaps in order to improve its image with Commonwealth members and minimize distracting bilateral discussions, the GOTT hastily chartered a jet in October to return a group of African deportees to their respective homelands, and opened an immigration detention center November 11 to house others that had been in legal limbo. ¶10. A diplomat close to the CHOGM planning process told us the meeting will go off mostly as expected, but efforts in the week before the meeting were a "mad scramble." The diplomat described the GOTT-appointed secretariat as dysfunctional and dictatorial, tabling "crazy ideas" that the other Commonwealth member representatives needed to dismiss or tone down. In what was described as a bout of hubris, we were told the Prime Minister announced this week that, instead of the long-agreed to plan to have him greet the heads of government at the opening ceremony in two or three groups bussed to the event, he now preferred to have each of the 50 leaders arrive by individual motorcade, "turning a 30 minute arrival program into a two-hour event," our contact said, and creating a much larger carbon footprint completely at odds with the planned discussions on climate change. COMMENT: SMALL ISLAND, BIG AMBITION -------------- 11: COMMENT: In an address to the nation November 18, Prime Minister Manning implored citizens to welcome CHOGM participants and be patient with any disruptions. In an echo of his justification for hosting the Summit of the Americas, he prophesized that having the world's eyes focused on T&T for CHOGM would lure tourists and investors here. Manning also appears to be vying for credentials as a regional, if not worldwide, player, by focusing on climate change and inviting notables in the arena such as Rasmussen, Sarkozy, Lula and the UNSYG for those talks. In his televised address, Manning stated that Trinidad and Tobago has been "at the center of almost frenzied activity among leading nations from both the developed and developing world...in preparation for the Copenhagen meeting," adding that Port of Spain has become the final and most important step in the Copenhagen process. KUSNITZ