- Title: Commonwealth chief pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth
- Date: 10th September 2022
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 10, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY-GENERAL, PATRICIA SCOTLAND, SAYING: ''Well, the wonderful thing about the whole of her reign is she built the Commonwealth brick by brick with all the leaders, and they made sure that it got stronger and stronger and perhaps the greatest testament to the strength is that at Kigali (the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda from June 20-26), two new members applied and were granted the joy of joining our family. Those two members being Togo and Gabon neither of them have ever had anything to do with the British Empire. They were, in fact, French colonies, but they've seen the wonder of the relationship of what our family has been doing, particularly in trade and climate change and they very much wanted to be part of us. So, I think it is a testament to the Commonwealth, is that we not only have had virtually every country, save one, who's left they've all come back. But there are more countries applying even now. So I think she's left our Commonwealth in robust, good health.''
- Embargoed: 24th September 2022 15:40
- Keywords: Britain Commonwealth Queen UK
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: UK
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Royals
- Reuters ID: LVA002437310092022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth on Saturday (September 10) saying she's left the union in good health.
The Commonwealth evolved out of the British Empire, and Elizabeth became its head in 1952 when she became queen, three years after the London Declaration formally created the voluntary association in its current form.
Now it is one of world's biggest international organisations, made up of 54 countries, almost all of which were former colonies of the United Kingdom, covering some 2.5 billion people or about one third of the world's population.
Scotland spoke on how the Commonwealth changed under Queen Elizabeth and praised her for being a driving factor in its development.
''She built the Commonwealth brick by brick with all the leaders, and they made sure that it got stronger and stronger,'' said Scotland.
(Production: Ben Makori, Helena Williams, Aiden Nulty) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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