Canada: Prime Ministers Trudeau and Attal avoid calling for a ceasefire in Gaza after meeting in Ottawa

The prime ministers of CanadaJustin Trudeau, and the Frenchman, Gabriel Attal, requested this Thursday during their bilateral meeting in Ottawa the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza stripbut avoided calling for a ceasefire or criticizing Israel.

In a statement, they condemned “Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7 and called for the immediate release of all hostages”, in addition to highlighting the “importance of ensuring that civilians in the Gaza Strip have access” to humanitarian aid.

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Trudeau and Attal also reiterated their support for a two-state solution to ensure lasting peace in the region, but unlike countries like Spain or Ireland, Canada and France did not express their support for unilateral recognition of Palestine.

During a press conference after the meeting, Attal defended the free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union, known as CETA, provisionally in force for six years, but whose ratification is blocked in the French Senate due to protests by French farmers.

Attal defended the pact, highlighting that since its entry into force, bilateral trade between France and Canada grew 33% and linked the opposition of his country’s Senate to the upcoming European elections.

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One of the concrete results of his visit to Canada, his first outside Europe since he was appointed French Prime Minister in January this year, was the signing of an agreement between the two countries to reinforce their cooperation against forest fires and climate change. .

As a result of the agreement, France announced this Thursday the purchase of two De Havilland seaplanes for firefighting from Canada and said it is contemplating new acquisitions to renew its fleet of amphibious aircraft.

Last year, France sent a large contingent of firefighters to Canada to help fight the flames during the worst wildfire season in the country’s history.

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Attal, who arrived in Canada on Wednesday night, intends to travel this Thursday to the French-speaking province of Quebec, where he will hold meetings today and tomorrow with representatives of the provincial government.

When asked whether France has a policy of non-interference in Canada in relation to Quebec, he was evasive and limited himself to pointing out that sometimes “excessive involvement is worse than indifference”.

The Quebec independence movement was revived in the second half of the 20th century, following the historic visit that then French President Charles de Gaulle made to the former French colony in 1967, during which he proclaimed “Viva Québec libre!” (“Long live free Quebec”).

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After De Gaulle’s visit, Quebec held two independence referendums, one in 1980 and the last in 1995. In the first, supporters of Quebec separation obtained 40.4% of the vote, and in the second this percentage rose to 49.42 %.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.