SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 25 April 2024, Thursday |

Canadian foreign minister to visit Ukraine, vows to deter Russian aggression

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly will visit Kyiv next week to reiterate Canada’s support for Ukrainian sovereignty and to strengthen efforts to discourage Russia’s “aggressive acts,” Ottawa announced on Saturday.

Moscow has stationed more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s border, and the US stated on Friday that it believed Russia was creating a pretext to invade if diplomacy failed to achieve its goals.

Since the takeover of Crimea in 2014, Canada, which has a sizable and politically significant Ukrainian ethnic community, has adopted a hard stance with Moscow.

“The amassing of Russian troops and equipment in and around Ukraine jeopardizes security in the entire region. These aggressive actions must be deterred,” Joly said in a statement.

“Canada will work with its international partners to uphold the rules-based international order.”

Joly will meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal and travel to the west of the country to speak to a 200-strong Canadian training mission that has been there since 2015.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday and “emphasized that any military incursion into Ukraine would have serious consequences, including coordinated sanctions,” Trudeau’s office said.

Canada has imposed punitive measures on more than 440 individuals and entities over the annexation of Crimea.

Joly, who starts a week-long trip to Europe on Sunday, will visit Brussels to see NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

She will also go to Paris for talks with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the statement said.

    Source:
  • Reuters