Welcoming the announcement, Commonwealth Secretary-General The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland, QC, said: ‘The Commonwealth, which began as eight nations in 1949, is growing to 56. The Commonwealth admitted Gabon and Togo as its 55th and 56th members respectively earlier this year. Zimbabwe also left voluntarily in 2003, President Emmerson Mnangagwa applied for the country to rejoin the Commonwealth in 2018. Left to right they are soldiers from India, East Africa, South Africa, New Zealand, a Canadian airman, an Australian soldier and a Royal Navy sailor. Five countries - Lesotho, Eswatini (previously known as. Membership is voluntary and former members of the Commonwealth include Ireland which left in 1949 and Maldives which withdrew in 2016. Most of the Commonwealth states are republics, with Barbados becoming the latest, having removed the Queen as head of state in 2021. It was in 1884 that Lord Roseberry, later a British prime minister, first dubbed the British Empire a Commonwealth of Nations, and the designation British Commonwealth remained.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |