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Leaders from more than 50 countries are expected to attend next years Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which will take place during the week of 16 April 2018 in London and Windsor. For the first time, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle will be among the Commonwealth Summit venues.

The Commonwealth is home to 2.4 billion people, a third of the worlds population, with developed and developing countries, small states and vulnerable nations and where 60% are under the age of 30. This is the first Commonwealth Summit under the leadership of Secretary-General Scotland.

The wonderful thing about the Commonwealth is that we are a family of 52 nations spreading across six regions, she said. What motivates us as a family, and what has guided us, are the shared aims of good governance, sustainable growth, and inclusive social and economic development, aided by our common language, common laws, common parliamentary and other institutions, as well as our cultural ties.

We are singularly well-placed and have connections and mechanisms which can help us devise shared approaches to the opportunities and challenges we face together. Ive found that theres always a spirit of goodwill, which makes it possible to work collaboratively and get straight to the nub of a matter when it is considered within a Commonwealth setting and by Commonwealth partners. This is what the Commonwealth Summit, held in the UK, will reinforce, a true global partnership to tackle the issues facing us today and come up with solutions.

In a Ministerial Roundtable last Friday, coordinated by the Secretariat, which brought together more than 40 member states, representative of all six regions, it was agreed that a key aim will be to increase intra-Commonwealth trade, building on the Commonwealth advantage. Trade among Commonwealth countries is projected to increase to US$1 trillion by 2020.

The Commonwealth Summit in April 2018 will see the UK take over from Malta as the chair of the heads of government until 2020.

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