Queen Elizabeth opens Commonwealth summit in Malta

The meeting, for which over 50 Commonwealth Heads of Government and other representatives have travelled to Malta, ends today.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will not get a chance of a nostalgic visit to a villa in Malta she shared with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, when they were newly-married almost 70 years ago.

After the opening, the leaders gathered with the Queen for the official CHOGM photograph.

But French President Francois Hollande is also attending even though his country is not part of the Commonwealth, to join a session on battling climate change.

“But we can say the same when it comes to climate. Human beings are destroying nature”.

“And it would only take a few countries – because they have not had sufficient guarantees, because they still think that certain obligations would hinder their development – to block the process”.

Mr Ban said people around the world were urging their leaders to strike an ambitious agreement.

The hub will help the least-developed countries and small island developing states including those in the Pacific to access funds for environmental projects in response to climate change.

The prime minister along with other leaders voted for CHOGM’s new secretary general through straw poll – an ad hoc or unofficial vote that provides dialogue among movements within larger groups.

Baroness Scotland, who was born to a Dominican mother and an Antiguan father and was the first black woman to be appointed Queen Counsel in the United Kingdom, described herself as “truly a child of the Commonwealth”.

The early favourite for the job, Antigua’s Sir Roland Sanders, had his chances rocked at the last minute after newspaper reports were published linking him to a corruption scandal.

“The Commonwealth has to have a plan with clear priorities, particularly in the struggle against radicalization as well as the tackling of the migration phenomenon, which is often challenged through schooling and employment”, Muscat said.

“The Commonwealth reflects the tensions that exist because around the same table you have some of the most developed and vulnerable economies in the world”, said Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who is hosting the summit.

Mr Turnbull, an avowed republican, will meet the Queen at a luncheon for new Commonwealth leaders on Friday before attending a CHOGM executive meeting where a new secretary-general will be officially chosen.

Queen Elizabeth, who is the head of the organization, said that she felt “enormously proud of what the Commonwealth has achieved, and all of it within my lifetime”.