Climate change not welcome at Chogm

Murray McCully. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Foreign Minister Murray McCully does not want to see the Commonwealth meetings in Trinidad and Tobago this week taken over by "Copenhagen issues".

Mr McCully will begin meetings tonight with his Commonwealth counterparts in the Caribbean state ahead of the arrival of Prime Minister John Key on Friday morning for the leaders' summit.

With a membership of 53, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) is the last big multilateral forum ahead of the Copenhagen climate change talks starting on December 7.

Before leaving New Zealand, Mr McCully told the Herald that while it would "look negligent" not to use the opportunity to have constructive discussions and compare notes on Copenhagen, "I don't think we would want to see the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting completely taken over by Copenhagen issues".

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend Chogm, as will Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen.

There were even reports in Trinidad papers this week that French President Nicholas Sarkozy would attend but that would be extraordinary and has not been confirmed.

Mr McCully is expected to discuss the issue of Sri Lankan refugees in a formal meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagamain, after the interception of several boats of asylum-seekers en route to Australia.

He expects the foreign ministers to discuss Fiji. With a military-installed Government since the 2006 coup, it was suspended by the Commonwealth in September this year. One issue that may emerge is Fiji's exclusion from the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next October, something Mr McCully will take a hard line on.

He does not believe any exception should be made. None was made for Nigeria when it was suspended in 1995.

"The precedent is Nigeria and once you start deciding to make exceptions you might as well not have any rules," the minister said.

Mr McCully will have a bilateral meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband where he will discuss Afghanistan.

He said he would be trying to get "some clarity" on responses to the report by United States General Stanley McChrystal, who sought more troops from President Barack Obama's Administration in August, warning that the war could be lost.

Mr McCully will head to a meeting in Brussels next week of Foreign Ministers of non-Nato countries that are part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Defence ministers have held two meetings but it will be the first foreign ministers' meeting for non-Nato force members. It followed criticism, particularly from Australia, about non-Nato contributing nations not having sufficient opportunity to express their views, Mr McCully said.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to be there.

In principle, said Mr McCully, the US response did not affect New Zealand's plans - the defence force personnel in Bamiyan would be reduced and civilian aid expanded and 70 SAS troops would be deployed over 18 months.

"But any variation to ISAF plans could have some impact on how we go about carrying out our plans. So I am deeply interested."