[Ottawa, Ontario] Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan.
Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Khan discussed their respective national efforts to fight the pandemic and protect the health, safety, and economic well-being of their citizens.
The two leaders spoke about the importance of a coordinated global response to the COVID-19 crisis, and in particular support for the needs of vulnerable countries affected by the pandemic. They discussed the joint initiative Prime Minister Trudeau recently launched with the United Nations Secretary-General and the Prime Minister of Jamaica to accelerate the global response to the pandemic and mobilize access to critical development financing, including for low- and middle-income countries.
Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Khan looked forward to strengthening cooperation between Canada and Pakistan and continuing to work together on these and other important global issues.
COVID-19 is a rapidly evolving global challenge. The Government of Canada is working closely with local, provincial, territorial, and international partners to minimize its health, economic, and social impacts in Canada and around the world.
About Pakistan Canada Relations: Pakistan and Canada share over 60 years of development cooperation. The priorities for the bilateral international assistance program are based on Pakistan’s development priorities and Canada’s comparative advantage in line with its Feminist International Assistance Policy. Global Affairs Canada is focused on gender equality, women’s rights, women’s economic empowerment, women’s political participation, polio eradication, and education (teacher training). Canada’s development assistance to Pakistan also includes multilateral, partnership and humanitarian programming. Additionally, project funding in Pakistan has come from the International Development Research Centre. The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives provides direct funding assistance for small projects to local NGOs and, in exceptional cases, international NGOs and government institutions.
In 2017, Pakistan was Canada’s 29th-largest export destination for merchandise, with Canada-Pakistan bilateral trade reaching $1.04 billion. Of this, Canadian exports to Pakistan totalled $693 million and imports from Pakistan totalled $351 million. Opportunities for Canadian companies exist in infrastructure, information and communications technologies, mining, energy, oil and gas, and the agri-food and wood sectors.
