(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken off on a 10-day international trip, where the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is expected to be at the center of attention.
Posted at 9:39 p.m.
He will first travel to Kigali, Rwanda on Tuesday evening to meet heads of Commonwealth countries for the first time since 2018. Canada plans to promote support for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia at the meetings .
Mr. Trudeau will also travel to Germany for the G7 Summit, then to Madrid for a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to address leaders at both summits as he continues to meet with world leaders to seek financial and military support.
The NATO leaders will be joined by delegations from Sweden and Finland, both of which asked to join the alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Leaders from Japan and South Korea have announced their intention to attend.
Justin Trudeau is also taking part in a bilateral meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during his busy itinerary.
Mr. Trudeau plans to be back home in time for the Canada Day celebrations on 1er July.
He completed a 10-day period of self-isolation that spanned between his return from the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles on June 11 and his departure on this trip.
The prime minister’s office says he started experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 on June 11, but not before he arrived in Canada. His plane landed in Ottawa at 8 p.m., according to his public itinerary.
He tested positive for COVID-19 on June 13, but his isolation reportedly began two days earlier when his symptoms began.
According to a May 22 version of the COVID-19 executive order, international travel is considered higher risk by the Canadian government because travelers could bring new variants of the virus into the country.
Therefore, those who are fully vaccinated are expected to monitor their symptoms for 14 days after returning from international travel, and if symptoms develop they should notify public health and then begin 10 days of isolation. This is double the isolation period required by Public Health Ontario for those who test positive in the province.
Mr. Trudeau had also tested positive for COVID-19 in January.