Mutharika off to London for Commonwealth summit: Malawi leader to visit Scotland
President Peter Muthalika is expected to leave the country on Friday to London with a lean delegation for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit, Foreign Affairs Minister Emmanuel Fabiano has said.
Fabiano told the news conference in the capital Lilongwe on Wednesday that President Muthalika will travel with a lean entourage to the UK trip to reduce travel bill.
The clarification comes a Mutharlika’s precious foreign trips have been marred with large entourage which drains the country’s hard earned taxpayers money.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government (Chogm) meeting will be hosted by the UK in April. The Commonwealth compromises 53 states and territories, mostly former parts of the British empire. They include Australia, New Zealand and Canada, in each of which the Queen remains head of state.
The minister said Malawi is benefiting from the Commonwealth membership through technical cooperation programmes, capacity building, research, experts exchange programmes, aid provided by member states under the Commonwealth framework, among other channels.
Officials said the CHOGM will also discuss facilitating trade among Commonwealth countries. The intra-Commonwealth trade is to the tune of US $ 800 billion, and Hitchens said the target is to take it US $ 1 trillion. The summit will be preceded by a host of meetings between officials and ministers, beginning from April 16, and will conclude with the leaders’ summit.
Fabiano also disclosed that the Malawian President will also visit Scotland “where he will fulfil a number of engagements aimed at cementing the bilateral relations existing between Malawi and Scotland.”
The old man will need to watch his step, if he wants to avoid a fall like his predecessor Kamuzu Banda, who tripped and fell in front of all the assembled heads of state. How embarrassing. That fall presaged his fall from office and the beginning of so-called ‘democratic rule’.
This is exactly what the general populace and file and ranks of your party are saying. You’re too old to come up with visionary ideas and act strategically. It doesn’t make any sense that a head of state would travel to this Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit to solicit trade from leaders of 53 commonwealth countries and yet you failed to travel to Kigali, Rwanda to sign the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which, if rolled out, would benefit Malawi immensely (if it promotes industrialisation of course). You missed a CEO Forum held in Cote de Ivoire where hungry… Read more »
Maybe this time things will change. DPP has proved difficult in the past and this has made the general public believe that it is a party full of thieves. What we expect as owners of money(tax payer) is that an expenditure report of these trips be made public. Those joining the president must also be known – we don’t want to see chiefs and DPP members in such trips.
He looks better than other babies
Mmmmh akula kwambiri agogo awa nanga mpaka kukamwa kubwafuka choncho???? Indeed the fall of Babylon is very very close!
Please don’t come back! We are going to take over !! It will be much easier with you gone
Kkkkkkkk
while you are in London , you need to reflect on the sentiments by Callister. We know for sure that you would have been released from the bondage of beast of prey and thieves and have moment of reflection. Most of us know callister to have been at state house and she witnessed how the beast and thieves work with the president. the same people who worked with Bingu are the same people who are working with Peter and among them are beasts and thieves. On another note please be resolved on corruption. Fight corruption without fear or favour. this… Read more »