Canada’s and Russia’s foreign affairs ministers met on Monday in an attempt to mend relations strained by the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
In a first meeting of its kind, since Canada froze high-level contacts with Russian officials two years ago, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion sat down for a 30-minute discussion with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the margins of an annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Vientiane, Laos.
“The ministers discussed Ukraine where Minister Dion was firm on Russia’s totally unacceptable actions in Crimea and they also discussed areas critical to our national interests such as the Arctic, counter-terrorism and space,” said Dion spokesman Joseph Pickerill in email to Radio Canada International.
A terse statement by the Russian ministry of foreign affairs said that during “their constructive conversation, the parties discussed topical issues of Russian-Canadian relations and the international agenda, including the situation in Syria and Ukraine.”
Under the previous Conservative government of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, contacts between the two countries had been largely limited to discussions between bureaucrats. The Harper government had steadfastly shunned high-level contacts with the Kremlin until Russia left Crimea, something that Russian officials said would never happen.
The Liberals promised during last year’s election campaign to re-engage with Russia after the previous Conservative government had cut nearly all ties. However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been facing calls to keep up the pressure.
“As we’ve said from the outset, engagement matters for Ukraine,” Pickerill said. “When we’re at the table, we can push for action, call people out for misbehaviour and press for change.”
Trudeau announced earlier this month that Canada will lead a 1,000-strong NATO battle group in Latvia whose mission is to deter Russia from engaging in Ukraine-style military adventures in the Baltics. The U.S., United Kingdom and Germany are organizing similar forces in Poland, Estonia and Lithuania.
Russia, on the other hand, has strongly criticized the NATO deployment on its western borders and has vowed to beef up its forces in the region even further, sparking fears of a Cold War-style tit-for-tat escalation.
“We are in Latvia to demonstrate our support for NATO allies and Ukraine and to deter aggression,” Pickerill said. “Engagement takes many forms and we are going to pursue every avenue in the cause of peace and stability.”
Sources told The Canadian Press a meeting between Dion and Lavrov had been in the works for some time, and that this week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Laos was chosen because it represented a neutral site for both parties.
With files from The Canadian Press
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