The foremost of the Edinburgh criteria requires new members to have either constitutional or administrative ties to at least one current member of the Commonwealth of Nations . Traditionally , new Commonwealth members had ties to the United Kingdom . The Edinburgh criteria arose from the 1995 accession of Mozambique , at the time the only member that was never part of the British Empire ( in whole or part ) . The Edinburgh criteria have been reviewed , and were revised at the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting , allowing the admission of Rwanda at the 2009 Meeting
2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2007
Commonwealth of Nations membership criteria