For­mer chair of the Com­mon­wealth, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, said the 54-mem­ber or­gan­i­sa­tion re­mains valu­able. Ad­dress­ing the open­ing of the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM) in Perth, Aus­tralia, yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her ex­pe­ri­ence as chair of the Com­mon­wealth was "very pos­i­tive and has strength­ened my faith in the val­ue and the vast po­ten­tial of the Com­mon­wealth." Per­sad-Bisses­sar as­sumed the po­si­tion of chair af­ter be­com­ing Prime Min­is­ter in 2010. For­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning held the po­si­tion from 2009.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said dur­ing her time in of­fice, she was able to look at the or­gan­i­sa­tion "from a new per­spec­tive and recog­nised the sense of shared his­to­ry and iden­ti­ty ex­ist­ing among mem­ber states." She said CHOGM 2011 high­light­ed the need for sol­i­dar­i­ty and co-op­er­a­tion. "It is clear that in or­der to build re­silience on the na­tion­al and glob­al lev­els, we must look at each oth­er for sup­port, guid­ance, ex­am­ples and as­sis­tance," she said. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said there must be "eq­ui­table dis­tri­b­u­tion of the com­mon wealth." She called on all mem­bers of the Com­mon­wealth to pledge to rise. Aus­tralian Prime Min­is­ter Ju­lia Gillard is the new chair of the Com­mon­wealth. Her term ex­pires in 2013.