Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, on the margins of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
Canada welcomed Indonesia’s participation at the Summit, and both leaders discussed the ongoing work at the G7 to enhance meaningful engagement with emerging and developing economies.
Prime Minister Trudeau thanked President Widodo for Indonesia’s leadership as Chair of the G20 last year and of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year. The leaders discussed continued efforts to strengthen Canada-ASEAN relations and welcomed the decision to convene a Summit to launch the ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership on the margins of the 43rd ASEAN Summit in September.
Prime Minister Trudeau and President Widodo also discussed ways to enhance Canada-Indonesia trade to benefit the people in both countries and create good middle-class jobs. They talked about the ongoing Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) negotiations and welcomed progress made to date. The leaders also highlighted the importance of ongoing Canada-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement negotiations.
The leaders discussed Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated Canada’s intent to deepen diplomatic, economic, and defence partnerships in the region to achieve common environmental objectives as well as inclusive, sustainable development.
Both leaders expressed concern over the worsening security situation in Myanmar and welcomed continued ASEAN efforts to resolve the crisis.
The Prime Minister and the President agreed to stay in touch and looked forward to seeing each other again.