Rwanda to Germany: Canada raises concerns of small Commonwealth nations in the G7

Kigali, Rwanda — Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said Canada will raise concerns for smaller Commonwealth countries on Sunday to the heightened threat of German G7 leaders, especially hunger.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jolly arrived in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on Wednesday and attended the Commonwealth Prime Minister's Meeting. Food shortage.

She said Canada is in "listening mode" in the Commonwealth and can be spoken by small country leaders without the dominant presence of the United States, Russia and China.

Canadian authorities are trying to emphasize that the cause of the shortage is the trespassing of Russia into Ukraine.

"What is clear to us is that Russia is weaponizing food, damaging many countries around the world and endangering the lives of 50 million people," Jolly said. I told reporters on Friday night in Rwanda.

She is targeting Russia's Ukrainian ports and grain storage silos, systematically blocking grain from reaching the countries that need it. He said he was.

Trudeau tried to meet with Musafaki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, for several days during the Commonwealth Prime Minister, but his seating was repeatedly postponed and eventually canceled.

Shortly after Trudeau arrived in Rwanda, the government announced that Canada would dedicate a new ambassador to the African Union, which is suffering from the food shortages given to the continent as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine. ..

Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin met with representatives of the African Union and Russia accused Russia of sanctions for stopping the flow of grain.

Trudeau will travel to the Bavarian Alps in Germany for the G7 Summit on Saturday night. The conflict with Ukraine comes to mind there.

Jolly talked to her G7 counterparts on Friday and she said she expected the famine and safe passage of Ukrainian refugees to be of paramount concern. ..

Some of the other voices that the Prime Minister has promised to take the lead in international conferences are youth guidance spoken at a dialogue event on Saturday focusing on the issues facing young people around the world. Belongs to a person.

Some representatives talked about the catastrophic effects of climate change, especially around remote island countries where infrastructure cannot withstand natural disasters and reconstruction efforts take years. .. The onslaught will hurt education and medical services, one representative told the forum.

This report by Canadian Press was first published on June 25, 2022.