Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has
announced that Canada will be giving over $300 million in new foreign aid to countries in southeast Asia, with nearly half of the funding going toward feminist−focused development.
“Now more than ever, we need to double down on cooperation,” Trudeau told leaders gathered at the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Cambodia on Nov. 13.
“This is a generational shift, and today I’m announcing concrete investments that are part of our commitment to this relationship.”
Over the next
five years, Canada will be pledging $100 million of its “Feminist International Assistance Policy development funding to support development initiatives in the Indo-Pacific,” according to a Nov. 13 news release.
Trudeau
also attended a “Women, Peace, and Security” roundtable at the summit, during which he pledged nearly $33 million to call for proposals supporting organizations that promote “gender equality and inclusion” in the Indo-Pacific region.
In Canada’s Feminist International
Assistance Policy, first released in 2017, then-Foreign Affairs minister Chrystia Freeland stated that the initiative focuses on “sexual and reproductive rights” along with giving access to “safe and legal abortions.”
“These rights are at the core of our foreign policy,” she wrote.
The Liberal government further promised over $84 million to support measures against “illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing” in the region, and also $40 million to help public servants conduct research.
Another $24.5 million will go toward opening a new office for the “Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada,” while just over $24 million will be spent on helping Canadian private businesses grow investment and networking in Southeast Asia.
Indo-Pacific Strategy
ASEAN consists of 10 member states in the region and has a number of international partners, including the United States, China, and the UK.
Trudeau also announced during the trip that Canada is currently negotiating an “ASEAN-Canada free trade agreement.”
“We have so much to offer each other as partners and we look forward to continuing this work together,” he said.
Several days before departing on the trip with Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced Canada’s forthcoming
Indo-Pacific Strategy, which will outline Canada’s future plans for action the region and its relationship with China.
Joly said the strategy will acknowledge China’s human rights abuses, but will also focus on furthering Canada’s trade relations with the country.
“There’s $100 billion worth of trade with China,”
she said in Toronto on Nov. 9.
A majority of MPs in the House of Commons
previously voted to declare China’s persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims a genocide, but Trudeau and his cabinet abstained from the vote.
Asked by a reporter on Nov. 13 why he has refused to acknowledge China’s acts of genocide,
Trudeau said there are “objective historical expert processes” to decide when to use the word “genocide.”
“We continue to call out vicious human rights abuses around the world, including against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang by the Chinese government,” he said. “But designations of genocide need to be made by proper international authorities.”
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
