Trudeau says seeking a council seat meshes with his government’s plan to renew Canada’s relationship with the world body, which cooled under the previous government. Trudeau has criticized the former Harper government for diminishing the country’s role at the UN.
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He praised not only Trudeau’s climate-change advocacy, but his desire to return Canada to its peacekeeping roots – which, he said, Canada helped create under external affairs minister Lester Pearson in the 1950s.
On Thursday evening, Trudeau will host an official dinner with Ban and his wife, Ban Soon-taek, in Ottawa.
“We’re going to evaluate the opportunities for Canada to operate a successful bid”, Trudeau said.
“I highlighted to the secretary general that part of Canada wishing to re-engage robustly with the United Nations and in multilateral engagement around the world includes looking towards a bid for the UN Security Council”, Trudeau said.
The United States reiterated on Wednesday their commitment to intensifying the fight against the so-called “Islamic State” group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, said the US Department of Defense.
Canada will also provide $CAD840m ($609m) in humanitarian assistance over three years, and has allocated $270m to “build local capacity” in Jordan and Lebanon, which are hosting more than two million Syrian refugees.
We remain hopeful that Prime Minister Trudeau will be different from former prime minister Stephen Harper who was blind and deaf to our plea for environmental justice, and act with firm resolve and speed to get Canada’s garbage back.
Trudeau said Canada will triple the number of special forces deployed to train Iraqi Kurdish forces on the ground over the next two years. However, the Prime Minister did not indicate when Canada would launch its bid.
“Investing in infrastructure and putting money into the pockets of middle class families will have a positive effect on growth and we think we can change the growth rate, it’s quite feasible”, he said.
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Trudeau has made reinvigorating Canada’s relationship with the United Nations a key pillar of his foreign policy and Ban’s visit will underline that priority. “Mr. Trudeau has declared Canada’s recommitment to the United Nations”.
