Close X
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
ADVT 
National

Trudeau calls on EU to further aid Ukraine

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 23 Mar, 2022 09:54 AM
  • Trudeau calls on EU to further aid Ukraine

BRUSSELS - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making a plea to European leaders to come together as democracies in the face of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and tackle rising uncertainties citizens have about the future.

Speaking to European parliamentarians this afternoon, the prime minister says those economic uncertainties have percolated for years, but are now stoked by rising global inflation.

Trudeau says economic frustrations are threatening the stability of the world and driving a deep uncertainty about the future and distrust of government.

He also says democracies face a new threat from Russian President Valdimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.

Trudeau says Canada stands with the people of Ukraine as Europe confronts its biggest security threat since the Second World War.

He says Western countries must collectively provide more humantarian aid for families affected by the war, send military equipment and lethal aid to Ukraine, and further tighten economic sanctions on Putin and his enablers in Russia and Belarus.

The speech comes on the first day of a whirlwind trip to Brussels and Trudeau's second visit to the continent this month.

The speech is Trudeau's second to European parliamentarians, following a 2017 address that was meant as a shot in the arm for a continent reeling from Britain's vote a year earlier to leave the European Union amid the election of Donald Trump in the United States.

Two weeks ago, Trudeau developed a similar theme in a speech to an international audience at the Munich Security Conference, where he called for a recommitment to democracy in the face of rising authoritarianism.

The speech was a sequel of sorts to the 2017 address the prime minister gave in Hamburg, Germany, that outlined his foreign-policy vision and his often professed faith in the rules-based international order.

Trudeau will join other NATO leaders on Thursday to co-ordinate the military alliance's response to Russia's attack on Ukraine and will meet with fellow G7 leaders before returning to Canada on Friday.

Trudeau toured Europe two weeks ago, where he held meetings in London, Berlin, Warsaw and Poland, and visited Canadian troops leading a NATO multinational battlegroup in Latvia.

Trudeau will face pressure to boost Canada's defence budget, which according to NATO estimates stands at 1.39 per cent of the country's gross domestic product in 2021.

"Ukraine is helping to make spending on defence more palatable for Canadians," said Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.

"I think we need ground-based, anti-aircraft defence capabilities desperately and a replacement for the (CF-18 fighter jets)."

Prior to leaving Ottawa on Tuesday, Trudeau spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about "further international assistance ahead of the upcoming NATO and G7 meetings," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

"Both leaders called on Russia to stop targeting civilians, to withdraw its military forces from Ukraine, and to engage in diplomacy with Ukraine."

In a tweet, Zelenskyy said he specifically spoke about the "humanitarian catastrophe" unfolding in the besieged city of Mariupol, and "the importance of effective security guarantees" for Ukraine.

MORE National ARTICLES

Convoy cost Ottawa $36.3M, memo says

Convoy cost Ottawa $36.3M, memo says
A memo to councillors released by the city says almost all of the $36.3-million bill is linked to policing the protest that clogged city streets by Parliament Hill in the downtown core.    

Convoy cost Ottawa $36.3M, memo says

Transit strike drags on in Sea-to-Sky corridor

Transit strike drags on in Sea-to-Sky corridor
Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle says in a statement that progress was being made during two days of negotiations before they ended late Thursday.

Transit strike drags on in Sea-to-Sky corridor

Charest says he won't change Canada's gun laws

Charest says he won't change Canada's gun laws
In a wide-ranging interview, he said that when it comes to gun control he believes the focus should be on stopping the flow of handguns coming into Canada from across the border. He pointed to the volume of shootings that have happened in Montreal and Toronto.

Charest says he won't change Canada's gun laws

Ontario students 'stable' after deadly Texas crash

Ontario students 'stable' after deadly Texas crash
Nine people were killed in the fiery Tuesday night crash and the two Canadians — Dayton Price, 19, of Mississauga, Ont., and Hayden Underhill, 20, of Amherstview, Ont. — suffered critical injuries.    

Ontario students 'stable' after deadly Texas crash

MPs told of confusion from crackdown on convoy

MPs told of confusion from crackdown on convoy
The government's use of the emergency powers in February included allowing financial institutions to freeze the accounts of those involved in the protests that occupied streets in downtown Ottawa and blocked key border crossings.    

MPs told of confusion from crackdown on convoy

Canada working on national flood insurance program

Canada working on national flood insurance program
On Monday, federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair finished a tour of B.C. communities that experienced devastating floods last November, including Abbotsford and Merritt, where some people still have not been able to move home.

Canada working on national flood insurance program