The Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, expressed his "disappointment" at Canada's decision to withdraw its $10m funding to the international body in light of Sri Lanka's role as chair.
A statement released by the Mr. Sharma's office on Tuesday, read,
"Mr Sharma expressed disappointment at this step but looked forward to the resumption of the contributions."
See full statement here.
Announcing Canada's decision to cut funding on Monday, the country's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said,
"We can no longer justify providing additional funding to an organization that turns a blind eye to human rights abuses, anti-democratic behaviour and religious intolerance in its member states".
See here for more.
Sri Lanka has responded by accusing Canada of using Commonwealth funds as a political tool. See here.
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