The war in Ukraine will cast a shadow over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Commonwealth national leaders when they arrive in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday for their first meeting since the start of the pandemic.
Food security, especially in Africa, is expected to be a major topic at the leaders’ conference. So is the fact that several major countries abstained from a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Russia by its Eastern European neighbor at the United Nations earlier this year.
In an interview with CBC Radio’s The House, Trudeau said the challenge facing Ukraine’s allies is to engage “in a very, very real and sustained way” with leaders who are skeptical of sanctions. “Understand that Russia is trying to destabilize the world.” and take democracy and the rule of law back decades. “
“It is important for everyone, not just European countries, that we are faced with this attempt to redesign the world order,” he added.
Ten members of the Commonwealth – Bangladesh, India, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe – formally abstained from a UN vote last March condemning the invasion Russian Federation of Ukraine on February 24.
Although not legally binding, UN General Assembly resolutions carry political weight.
Trudeau said that an argument must be made to convince India and South Africa, which said that “they are very proud of the principles of democracy, the principles of territorial integrity, of sovereignty, of a people capable of determining its own future “. again against Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet each other before their meeting in New Delhi, India, on December 6, 2021. (Manish Swarup / The Associated Press)
It remains to be seen how effective these arguments will be. India, for example, has been buying Russian oil and coal at a discount at an increasing rate.
India is the world’s third largest consumer of oil and more than 80 percent is imported. Moscow was not a major oil supplier to India before the invasion. In January and February this year, India did not import any crude oil from Russia.
Today, Russia is the second largest source of oil in India.
The Commonwealth meeting, Trudeau said, will be an opportunity to remind countries that “they should not do well with Russia” and to stress that Moscow is “the instigator of all this instability” around the world. especially when it comes to food. security.
Ukraine and (to a lesser extent) Russia are among the main suppliers of cereals in Africa, where food prices are skyrocketing.
A Ukrainian soldier passes by a burning grain from a silo bombed by Russian forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on May 31, 2022. (Serhii Nuzhnenko / Reuters)
Russia has tried to blame Western sanctions for these price spikes. Trudeau noted that sanctions on Russia do not affect shipments of food and grain.
Much of Ukraine’s grain for export is still stranded in the country because its ports have been closed by a Russian naval blockade.
Colin Robertson, a former diplomat and foreign policy expert at the Canadian Institute of Global Affairs, said the Commonwealth meeting offered Trudeau “a real chance” as some other leaders may be absent and the Prime Minister recently elected from Australia has just set foot. wet on the international stage.
Robertson said he hopes to see a more substantial discussion at the G7 leaders’ meeting in Germany, which will take place immediately after the Rwanda summit.
The Commonwealth, he said, “is a useful forum, but perhaps less useful than it was before.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, February 8, 2020. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press)
Last week, in anticipation of the meeting, Trudeau spoke with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. A senior government official, speaking on the background, said the prime minister will hold more talks with other leaders ahead of the summit.
Trudeau flies to Rwanda as the country’s human rights record is once again being questioned.
Human rights groups last week expressed concern over the imprisonment and beating of Rwandan dissidents. A British government plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda has added another factor to these concerns.