Prince Charles champions Commonwealth in key-note speech in Kuala Lumpur: 'It has a pivotal role to play'

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales attend a Gala Dinner in Kuala Lumpar to celebrate 60 years of UK - Malaysia diplomatic ties
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Robert Jobson4 November 2017

The Prince of Wales today championed the Commonwealth saying it has a "pivotal role to play" in safeguarding our planet and humanity for the next generation.

In a key-note speech Prince Charles said we must back and empower young people of the Commonwealth to help them tackle the man-made "perfect storm" of problems such as "climate change."

Speaking at a gala dinner in Kuala Lumpur the prince stressed that Commonwealth leaders must listen to the views of the next generation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London next April.

"I do not feel that it is realistic or fair for us simply just to pass our problems to the next generation in the hope that they will resolve them," he said.

"We are beholden at the very least to ensure that their inheritance sustains rather than constrains them."

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall pose with Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor
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And the prince insisted we have the money, resources and know how to tackle global threats.

He said: "If we show determination we are fully able to harness our intelligence and our compassion to build societies that are restorative and regenerative.

"We certainly have the money, we increasingly have the technology and we now have the Sustainability Goals as a commonly agreed framework of joint action which,if implemented would generate $12 trillion dollars and 600 million additional jobs."

"Transformative change is possible," he said, stressing the importance of the circular economy and sustainability.

He went on: "Representing a third of the world’s population and a fifth of its land-mass, it can draw on a uniquely wide range of national contexts, experiences, traditions and, above all, professional associations – something, of course, which makes the Commonwealth unlike anything else in the world – for the solutions that we all so desperately need now.

"We must do all that we can to ensure that our young people of the Commonwealth are supported to enable them to be successful in working with us to deal, with the necessary energy and imagination, with these complex and enormous challenges," he said.

Charles will take a leading role alongside the Queen - who is the head of the organisation - at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London and Windsor. The Prince could one day follow his mother in heading up the 52 member global organisation.

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, with shoe designer Jimmy Choo as they attend the Gala Dinner
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He went on: "I have every confidence that the (Commonwealth) Youth Summit will offer us some valuable insights and compelling solutions to the challenges we all face such as the accelerating threat multiplier of catastrophic climate change.

"What gives me that hope is what I have seen happen when you put faith in young people," he said.

Charles - who established his Prince's Trust to support youth entrepreneurs more than 40 years ago - added, "What young people need, I have learned, is encouragement and enough support, advice and skills training to get started. Once started, the results can often be spectacular and profoundly heartening," he said.

He went on: "The world is also seeing an unprecedented shift from rural to urban dwelling which is creating many acute pressures: traffic congestion, dangerous levels of air pollution, the spread of unplanned settlements along highways and the destruction or disruption of vital eco-systems and the services that Nature struggles to provide us.

"How, then should we respond, to this perfect storm of human-created problems that we simply can no longer afford to ignore?"

Prince Charles Camilla look at limited edition stamps released to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and Malaysia
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Charles also stressed bi-lateral ties of trade and security.

He said, "Today our partnership is vibrant and dynamic and, if I may say so, it is vitally important for the prosperity and security of both our countries.

"The trade and investment that flows between us, in both directions, creates skilled, well-paid employment in the United Kingdom just as it does in Malaysia."

Earlier Charles presented a museum in with his framed signature written in Arabic.

He has been learning Arabic for six years and often sends letters to Islamic scholars and leaders signed in their language as a sign of mutual respect.

The prince later went to a tech hub in the city and walked into the offices through a quirky door modelled on BBC Doctor Who's Tardis.

As he walked through to the photographers flash bulbs he joked, "I could have come through the side (entrance).

The heir to the throne is on an four country tour of south-east Asia and India.