The Queen’s Baton has just come through Australia. It is currently travelling around some 70 nations and territories which will be competing at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow starting in July 2014. There are 53 countries in the Commonwealth comprising one third of the world’s population: The Gambia regrettably resigned last month, hopefully temporarily. But at the Games, territories like Jersey and Norfolk Island compete under their own flag. The Commonwealth Games are often known as “the friendly games”: that’s certainly how it felt when I attended the Manchester Games in 2002, the last time the UK was host.
The baton visited several Australian cities. In Canberra, to the sound of bagpipes, we hosted an event attended by athletes, sports administrators and politicians which attracted good media coverage. Australian Paralympian Scott Reardon signed a book which is being signed by one young person from each Commonwealth country. I was in the UK at the time, so Deputy High Commissioner Tony Brennan did the honours. But I had had the opportunity to catch up with the baton and its escorts at the Residence of our High Commissioner in Singapore a few days earlier.
After Glasgow, Australia will be hosting the next Commonwealth Games, on the Gold Coast in 2018. I am meeting up with the CEO of the Gold Coast Games shortly, on my next visit to Brisbane, together with my Director of Trade. We will be discussing opportunities for UK commercial involvement. Thanks to the success of the London 2012 Olympics, UK companies have developed great strengths in a wide variety of major events-related products and services. Many have strong partnerships with Australian companies, who have also been very active in this area since Sydney 2000.
The Commonwealth is very much in the headlines at the moment with the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka later this month. HRH the Prince of Wales will be representing the Queen there. It will be important to maintain the strong focus on Commonwealth values, like democracy, human rights and rule of law, which Australia achieved when it hosted the last CHOGM in Perth in 2011. I know David Cameron is looking forward to seeing new PM Tony Abbott there.