The gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly later in September offers an unprecedented opportunity for Prime Minister Trudeau to demonstrate how Canada will contribute to a new global diplomatic effort to reduce nuclear dangers.
What can be more important for the “rules based international order” that Foreign Minister Freeland purports to champion than binding nuclear arms control agreements? Canadian leadership please!
In Venezuela, Ukraine and Yemen, the government of Canada must decisively move to embrace new opportunities for diplomatic peacemaking.
The new Ukrainian President has broken with the entrenched political old guard in his country and made peace negotiations with Russia his top priority. Yet, instead of forthrightly supporting this new approach, FM Freeland continues with her same old anti-Russian rhetoric.
The utter lack of constructive Canadian engagement is the disturbing theme that unites this week’s roundup of events regarding Venezuela, Saudi arms transfers, increased Russia-USA tensions and Trumpian efforts to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.
We call on the Canadian government to re-invigorate dialogue with Iran, prioritize support for the INF Treaty and ensure prompt accession to the global Arms Trade Treaty.