Mélanie Joly to discuss Ukraine by video Tuesday with U.S. secretary of state

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This article was published 24/04/2022 (978 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON – Ukraine’s war with Russia will be top of mind Tuesday when Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly meets by video link with her U.S. counterpart.

Joly and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will discuss the ongoing multilateral effort to push back against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Word of the meeting came shortly after Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met in person in Kyiv with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Blinken says the global effort to support Ukraine — involving more than 30 countries, including Canada — is showing “real results,” which is more than can be said for Putin.

He says Russia is failing in its effort to rob Ukraine of its sovereignty.

Later this week, Defence Minister Anita Anand will be in D.C. for her own set of in-person meetings with Austin at the Pentagon.

It will be Anand’s first official visit to the U.S. capital as defence minister. She’ll be joined by deputy minister Bill Matthews, Communications Security Establishment Chief Shelly Bruce and Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada’s chief of defence staff.

Anand and Austin are expected to address support for Ukraine, as well as modernizing Norad. Updating the bilateral aerospace defence system has taken on new urgency given Putin’s invasion.

Joly’s meeting with Blinken will “reaffirm Canada-U.S. co-operation on shared security priorities,” spokesperson Adrien Blanchard said in a statement.

Those include “our support to Ukraine, co-operation with NATO allies and the global impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2022.