Canada to host summit on crisis
Seen as more neutral setting for talks on nukes
OTTAWA • The guest list isn’t firmed up, the date and location are still to be determined.
But the government is billing a major international meeting it will host on the North Korea nuclear crisis as an essential, overdue step toward bringing key players together to brainstorm a non-military solution.
As to what that solution might be — nothing firm.
The meeting will likely occur somewhere in Canada, sometime early next year.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have been discussing plans for the meeting for months. But they chose to announce it late Tuesday after North Korea carried out its longest-ever missile test.
Freeland couldn’t say what Canada’s specific role would be but she said convening the meeting was an important step “in terms of showing the unity of the international community in applying pressure on North Korea.”
Canada offers what amounts to a less stressful setting for the talks, a senior government official said Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“It makes sense we could bring together people that may not necessarily feel that they would want to go to the United States,” the source said, adding that holding talks in Japan or South Korea is simply too close to the crisis.
Tillerson saw the value in Canada taking the initiative forward, the source said.
Canada has a history in the region, where it fought in the Korean War, but it is also a non-nuclear power.
Freeland said her Chinese counterpart would be among the invitees. The meeting, which will be co-hosted by the U.S., will potentially involve the foreign ministers of close to two dozen countries.
China and Russia are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which held an emergency meeting about North Korea on Wednesday, amid wider calls for more sanctions against the country.
Canadian officials had no comment on whether Russia would be receiving an invitation. Moscow denounced the latest North Korean test as a provocation that would hurt the chances of finding a political solution.
Five key countries — the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia — need to strike a “grand bargain” that satisfies their individual interests in the region, wrote Patricia Kim, the council’s Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow earlier this month.