Trudeau, allies call for global unity
Post-pandemic recovery, Trump the focus at virtual UN summit
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led a united call for global co-operation at a major United Nations meeting Thursday aimed at mitigating the devastating social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The conference came as Canada is competing for one of two non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council next month against Norway and Ireland. Canada is running on a platform of trying to help rebuild the post-pandemic world.
Trudeau has been courting the support of various large voting blocs in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean because European countries are expected to rally around Norway and Ireland.
He co-hosted the meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and opened the hourslong video conference by affirming support for the international institutions that need to lead the recovery.
“And for the global economy to recover, and for our domestic economies to bounce back, we need a global, co-ordinated plan,” Trudeau said.
“Our citizens need to have confidence in international institutions that leave no one behind and are capable of overcoming global challenges.”
More than 50 heads of state and government participated, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel
Macron and Britain’s Boris Johnson, along with representatives of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the private sector.
U.S. President Donald Trump did not take part. Trump has argued that wise leaders put the interests of their own countries first.
One by one, Merkel, Macron, Johnson and the president of the European Commission, as well as the prime ministers of Norway and Ireland — among others — thrashed Trump’s goit-alone approach without mentioning his name. They defended the World Health Organization, which Trump has defunded, and the Paris agreement on climate change, from which Trump is withdrawing.