CONFIDENTIAL
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2
DSR 11C
just before the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank,
and triennial Ministerial meetings in health, education, law
and agriculture.
Officials meet on these and many other
subjects such as civil aviation, forestry, postal administratio
and telecommunications. Commonwealth senior officials meet
biennially in the year in which CH GM is not held. There are
also Commonwealth aid programmes, such as the Commonwealth
Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC), the Commonwealth
Youth Programme (CYP) and the Commonwealth Science Council
(CSC), and the Commonwealth Foundation fosters a wide range of
professional contacts among, for example, engineers, architects
journalists and nurses.
4. There are also a large number of non-governmental Common-
wealth bodies, such as the Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association and the Royal Commonwealth Society.
5. The past four years have seen greater emphasis on regional
co-operation in the Commonwealth. For example there have been
two meetings (1978 and 1980) of Heads of Government of the
Asia-Pacific region. In the Caribbean
Caricom
already
exists; and an organisation of Eastern Caribbean States has
recently been set up. In Africa Foreign Ministers from
Commonwealth countries met last year in the margins of an
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) meeting.
Britain's position in the Commonwealth
16. The character of the Commonwealth has changed greatly over
the last 20 years or so. Not only has its membership
increased but the system of Commonwealth trade preferences,
which knit its members together in economic self-interest,
has been dismantled, mainly as a result of British accession
to the European Communities. Changes in British nationality