Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the cases of the two Canadian men detained in China with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G7 Leaders’ Summit’s first working session on Saturday, Global News has learned.
A Canadian government source told Global News that the two world leaders also discussed the countries’ shared land border, which has been closed to non-essential travel since March 2020.
Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arbitrarily detained in China in December of 2018, in what is largely viewed as retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou for extradition to the United States on fraud charges.
According to the source, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Trudeau to lead part of a session about the economy and infrastructure that held a “heavy focus” on China, where the “Two Michaels” were again brought up.
Foreign policy is also on the agenda for a closed-door meeting between international leaders gathered in England to strategize on how best to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
There are plans underway amongst G7 leaders on how to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative — an ambitious infrastructure project launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping and also referred to as the New Silk Road.
China pours billions of dollars into infrastructure investments in other countries, stoking concerns about increased control and influence across the globe, as well as dangerous debt levels among participating nations.
The White House released a statement on Saturday saying that Biden and other G7 leaders agreed to launch their own global infrastructure plan called “Build Back Better World (B3W),” aimed at helping low and middle-income countries with infrastructure.
How to deal with China and its more aggressive stance is one of the challenges faced by these countries, including Canada, which has strong economic ties to the nation.
Trudeau is facing pressure from the Conservatives to be tougher with China. He has said in the past that his Liberal government is working hard to bring Spavor and Kovrig home and sees their detention as a retaliation and pressure tactic since Wanzhou was arrested.
Throughout the day, Trudeau is also set to meet with the leaders of France, Italy and Germany. He met with Johnson the day before.
Ramping up the worldwide vaccine campaign to beat COVID-19 is a major focus of the G7 Leaders’ Summit, hosted by Johnson.
In a joint statement with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trudeau spoke of the “heavy human toll” the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on the world.
The two leaders agreed to collaborate on a list of initiatives geared towards a “sustainable” post-COVID-19 recovery, from developing cultural exchanges and making new commitments to promoting gender equality, to strengthening multilateral cooperation by donating to the global vaccine sharing program known as COVAX.
Trudeau is expected to make an announcement at the G7 leaders’ summit saying Canada will donate up to 100 million doses of vaccine to other countries, but it’s not yet clear how many of those would come from supplies initially destined for Canada.
As of Saturday, more than 63 per cent of all Canadians had been partly vaccinated and more than 11 per cent were fully vaccinated, the latest data from covid19tracker.ca showed.
Public health officials have said that Canada is expected to have enough doses to fully vaccinate every eligible Canadian by the end of September.
— With files from the Canadian Press
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