Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will leave Canada for Europe, where he is expected to participate in high-stakes talks with other leaders about important issues like climate change and the need to get people vaccinated in low- and middle-income countries.
Though much of the approximately one week trip will be controlled by the G20 meeting in Rome and the ensuing 26th “conference of the parties” (COP26) climate summit in Glasgow, Trudeau has created time for a formal visit to the Netherlands, a country that has close historic and diplomatic ties with Canada.
While speaking to reporters during a briefing ahead of the trip, a government official said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte invited Trudeau to “really deepen the ties between our two countries, which are already very deep.” The official said Rutte travelled to Canada in 2018 and Trudeau is “returning the invitation.”
The official said both countries are deeply aligned on foreign policy matters and pointed to the current cooperation on the climate file as the two countries motivated other developed countries to do more in turning back rising global temperatures.
While talking to CBC News, Ontario Independent Sen. Peter Boehm, said Trudeau and Rutte could use the diplomatic meeting to discuss the best way to approach the Rome summit.
The G20 countries represent 80 percent of the economy of the globe and the majority of annual greenhouse gas emissions. That makes the Rome summit extremely important.
The G20 environment ministers’ meeting ended in deadlock earlier this year as it did not reach an agreement on major issues like getting rid of coal and restricting global warming to 1.5 C. Multiple countries, like China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia did not accept some of the proposed languages.
Boehm said Canada and the Netherlands could establish a realistic solution through creative “wordsmithing.”
He said: “It’s a friendly, easy relationship and I would say, since the prime minister is on that side of the Atlantic anyway, renewing that friendship is entirely appropriate in terms of the way these things go.”
He however noted that Trudeau and Rutte are ideologically aligned.
He said: “They’ll discuss bilateral issues, global concerns and they will compare notes on COP going into Glasgow.”
