Commonwealth Leaders Weigh Deals Affecting 2.7 Billion

More than 50 Commonwealth leaders are due to meet in Antigua this week, with new deals and pledges on the agenda for countries representing 2.7 billion people. At the people’s forum, Richardo Aiken said Indigenous people must be brought into the conversation: “It's about how do we bring these players, the first people, those who were before us, into the conversation?”

Deals at the top

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting takes place every two years. Officials from Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates are also scheduled to attend. Many Commonwealth countries once formed part of the British Empire. Now their leaders will consider trade barriers, investment and shared economic ties amid global political upheaval.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey said the agenda includes “conflict, economic shocks, rising costs, climate change, trade, weaponization of tariffs; and all of this hitting directly the pockets of our people.” These consequences reach ordinary people, while leaders and officials gather to decide how their countries will respond.

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed the highest import duties on U.S. trading partners since the Great Depression, though legal challenges have caused the rates to fluctuate. Botchwey said Commonwealth countries could limit their exposure to outside events by trading more with one another. “If we are trading more among ourselves, whatever happens outside the Commonwealth will not affect countries too much,” she said. She called strengthening economies “an opportunity we cannot miss.”

The meeting is also expected to establish a fund for digital skills training for about 10 million young adults. Botchwey said she hopes the private sector, foundations and philanthropies will contribute. Officials also expect to establish a fund to help countries transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The report gives no details about how much either fund would contain or what contributions officials have secured.

Who gets heard—and who gets funded

Climate concerns will feature prominently. Forty-nine of the Commonwealth’s 56 countries share a border with the ocean, and worries about rising sea levels are growing. “How are we going to prepare them and ensure that our ocean is healthy?” Botchwey asked.

Aiken, a civil society governor representing the Caribbean and Americas at the Commonwealth Foundation, said climate justice, freedom of expression and empowering vulnerable groups would likely dominate the people’s forum. He pointed to “a large population of Indigenous people” in the region and stressed their place in the conversation. Climate change, he added, is urgent: “We are actually living in one of the most vulnerable regions in the world.”

Aiken said the forum would likely propose initiatives to help civil organizations tackle barriers, including the difficulty of writing proposals. That obstacle matters because proposal writing is “the main vehicle to access financing,” he said. The four-day meeting will also host forums on business, women and young people. The source identifies a funding hurdle but doesn’t say the proposed initiatives or funds have been established.

Some Caribbean leaders have called for slavery reparations to be discussed at the meeting. King Charles III is expected to attend after visiting the Bahamas and Guyana the previous week, and Queen Camilla is expected to join him.

The ceremony and the agenda

The opening ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday morning; the event is set to end on Wednesday. Separately, King Charles III and Queen Camilla attended an Independence Day parade in Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday, Nov. 1, as the country marked the 45th anniversary of independence from Britain. The ceremony and an exhibition cricket match took place at the Sir Vivian Richards cricket ground in North Sound, Antigua.

Leaders are weighing trade arrangements, investment and climate funds as people face the costs Botchwey described. Her words were plain: global shocks and rising costs are “hitting directly the pockets of our people.”