Our countries have a long-standing friendship. Our shared history, parliamentary traditions and democratic values lie at the heart of this bond, and the challenges of the past year show that the links between our countries continue to grow stronger.
We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in condemning the politically motivated arrest and detention of Alexey Navalny.
Today, the Secretary-General, António Guterres, co-chaired a High-Level Replenishment Conference for the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund together with H.E. Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone; H.E. Abdalla Hamdok, Prime Minister of the Republic of Sudan; H.E. Marc Garneau, Foreign Minister of Canada, Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission and H.E. Heiko Maas, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced Canada’s contribution of $15 million to the UN Peacebuilding Fund while co-chairing the virtual UN Peacebuilding Fund Replenishment Conference, along with the UN Secretary-General, Germany, Sierra Leone and Sudan.
Minister Garneau and Secretary Blinken spoke about the importance of the Canada-U.S. bilateral relationship based on mutual respect and our shared priorities, including the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting supply chains and bilateral trade, the promotion of human rights and democratic values, and ensuring the strength of our collective and bilateral security agreements.
“I was deeply concerned when it was recently brought to the attention of Canada and other donors to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East [UNRWA] that certain educational materials used last year to support Palestinian refugee children during pandemic-related school closures in the West Bank and Gaza contained references that violated UN values of human rights, tolerance, neutrality and non-discrimination..."
On Friday, January 15, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, spoke with Anna Hallberg, Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Nordic Affairs, to discuss Canada and Sweden’s close relationship and shared commitment to open, rules-based trade.
Canada is a strong supporter and leading donor to the COVAX Facility. The COVAX Facility is the key to ending this pandemic and will only work if we all come together.
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion, and International Trade today announced measures related to the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Canada is gravely concerned with evidence and reports of human rights violations in the People’s Republic of China against members of the Uyghur ethnic minority and other minorities.