Canadian Foreign Minister Freeland to visit Bangladesh

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected visit Bangladesh at the beginning of May. The Canadian minister is hoping to visit a Rohingya refugee camp and witness firsthand the effects of the displacement of the Muslim minority from Myanmar, reports the Globe and Mail. Some 700,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence which erupted in Myanmar on August 25, 2017. According to the report, Canada’s Special Envoy to Myanmar, Bob Rae, is scheduled to join Freeland in Bangladesh, where she plans to attend the Organization of Islamic Co-operation meeting of foreign ministers on May 5 and 6. Even though the trip is still in the planning stages, senior government officials confirmed that Freeland will not visit Myanmar. Therefore, her current itinerary does not include a meeting with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi has come under fire for her handling of the Rohingya crisis. Freeland, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Rae met with Suu Kyi last November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Vietnam. John Kirton, a University of Toronto international-relations professor and expert on the Group of Seven, said Freeland has made the Rohingya crisis one of her personal foreign-policy priorities. Expressing no shock regarding Freeland’s decision to not visit Myanmar, he said the optics of meeting with the country’s military – which led the crackdown on Rohingya in Rakhine state – would not be good. News of the Canadian minister’s expected trip comes after Rae published a report on the Rohingya crisis earlier this month. The report called on Canada to lead an international effort to investigate “clear evidence” that crimes against humanity were committed against the minority group. Canada is playing host to G7 foreign affairs and security ministers in Toronto until Tuesday, ahead of the leaders’ summit in Charlevoix, Que, this June. The Rohingya crisis is one of many topics up for discussion at the G7 summit under way in Toronto.