The august body’s present Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma from India will be seeking for a re-election.

This 22nd CHOGM Summit will determine India’s influence over 32 small nation states in the 54-member body.

As the Prime Minister of Indian, Dr Manmohan Singh has opted not to attend the Perth Summit citing his busy schedule, the Indian team is being led by the Vice President of India, M Hamid Ansari

The Indian Vice President is scheduled have bilateral discussions with the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (from Labour Party), leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott (from Liberal Party) and the President of Seychelles, James Michel.

The CHOGM summit will see leaders discuss a series of proposals, including setting up a monitoring mechanism on human rights based on the report of the 11-member Eminent Persons Group which has been circulated to member countries.

The Report is voluminous with 106 recommendations, including 14 core recommendations. India has reservations on the proposals for the Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights. It is of the view that dealing with these issues would undermine the role of both the Secretary General and the Commonwealth and would be a duplication of the efforts of what the UN is already doing through its rapporteurs. The Commonwealth should focus on strengthening the existing institutions rather than creating new ones.

On demands by a section of members to reconsider Sri Lanka as the host of the next CHOGM summit on account of violations human rights and war crimes committed against the erstwhile Tamil rebel group, LTTE, India maintains that matter has been decided in 2009 and is now a closed chapter.

The meeting of the Commonwealth Business Forum is underway and the Indian delegation is led by Adi Godrej.

The Indian Minister for External Affairs, SM Krishna arrived in Perth on October 26 for the two-day Commonwealth Foreign Ministers Conference. He inaugurated the Indian Consulate General Office in Perth – second such office in Australia in the space of five years. This city of Western Australia is strategic in the sense Western Australia accounted for 56% of total exports from Australia to India in 2009-10 of which more than 85% were minerals. Many Indian companies have been investing in Western Australia and are keen to invest in mineral sector.

Australia is India’s eight largest trading partner. About 17 Indian It companies are present in Australia operating 13 software development centers. India is negotiating for a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Australia.

The Perth Consulate General Office can be an important contact point as India is slated to assume the Chair of the Indian Ocean Rim – Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) and Australia to take over as its Vice Chair.

Under the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, one of the largest that India has with any country, collaborative researches are undertaken in the “Grand Challenges” in energy security, food security, health, sustainable development and in innovative projects in renewable energy and the marine sciences.

India is the largest member of the Commonwealth with nearly 60% of its total population. A number of Commonwealth countries also have sizeable numbers of Persons of Indian Origin in their population. India is presently the fourth largest contributor to the Commonwealth’s assessed budgets and the fifth largest contributor to the voluntary Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC), which is used for providing technical assistance and capacity-building to its developing member states. India has consistently, constructively and significantly contributed to various Commonwealth activities and has stepped up its engagement with the organization in recent times. India has increased its contribution to CFTC to 1.1 million pounds since 2009-10.

India also contributes for the running of the Commonwealth Secretariat to the tune of about 640,000 pounds. The Commonwealth also has joint offices in New York and Geneva to provide office space and a venue for many small countries who would otherwise find it very difficult to manage office space in international organisations. For the one in New York India has contributed about $100,000 and for the one in Geneva it contributed $ 80,000.

India funds some individual programmes. The ICCR handles the scholarship programme which is totally different. India’s contribution to Commonwealth Foundation, which does a lot of work with non-governmental organisations, amounts to 140,000 pounds.

India has contributed $ 60,000 to the Commonwealth Media Development Fund as part of a $ 120,000 paid over two years. India’s contribution to the Commonwealth Partnership Platform Portal on the e-government and learning, it is 100,000 pounds and for the Commonwealth Youth Programme, which is aimed at youth activities and sports, it is 50,000 pounds.

During the last CHOGM Summit in 2009 in Port of Spain, the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh had announced several initiatives to support Commonwealth activities, including enhanced training slots, contributions to the Media Development Fund and the Commonwealth Partnership Platform Portal, and support for the new Commonwealth Small States Office in Geneva. All these commitments have been fulfilled and they demonstrate India’s continuing commitment to the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth was set up in 1949 as a voluntary association of states with erstwhile British colonies as its members, being English-knowing nation and having a common legal system. Some countries which were not British colonies later joined Commonwealth like Mozambique in 1995, Cameroon followed a few months later and Rwanda joined in 2009.

CHOGM Summits have a format of Executive Sessions, where Heads of Government interact in a more formal manner and they make statements, and are accompanied by Ministers or officials, and a Retreat, where the Heads of Government interact informally with their counterparts without the presence of any aides.

The theme of CHOGM this year, chosen by Australia, is 'Building National Resilience, Building Global Resilience'. Australia has circulated a Concept Paper on the theme which focuses on strengthening the Commonwealth, to enable it to more effectively assist member nations in dealing with current challenges as individual states, as members of the Commonwealth, and as members of the global community.

The paper focuses on issues related to economic and social development, food and energy security, and the adverse effects of climate change. Efforts are also underway to enhance the Commonwealth’s role in international fora, particularly the G20 process, the 17th Conference of Parties (COP-17), and the Rio+20 meeting on sustainable development scheduled in Brazil next year.

In addition, the Heads of Government are expected to review developments within the Commonwealth and globally. They will discuss a whole gamut of issues of relevance to the Commonwealth ranging from the promotion and protection of fundamental political values in the Commonwealth, the global economic situation, international trade, the Commonwealth’s engagement with the G20, climate change and sustainable development, and initiatives to deal with the concerns of the youth and women. A discussion on small states, which is particularly important because 32 of the 54 Commonwealth countries are actually small states, will be held especially in the context of their vulnerability to economic volatilities.

In terms of the Outcome Documents, the Heads of Government are expected to issue a joint communiqué spelling out the position of the Commonwealth on major issues including these international issues that are of importance to the Association. A stand-alone Declaration on Food Security Principles is also expected to be negotiated and adopted. A number of Commonwealth-affiliated organizations such as Business, Youth and People’s Forums will also be meeting during this period in Perth. Reports on their activities will be presented to Foreign Ministers at their meeting.