Paris attacks pose quandary for Canada’s Trudeau

Justin Trudeau pledged to strengthen co-operation with China after his father’s historic engagement with the nation received a glowing tribute Monday from President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit.

“That was an extraordinary political vision”, Xi told the younger Trudeau in translated remarks.

Xi and Trudeau also said they remained committed to exploring the potential for a free trade agreement between China and Canada. “China will always remember that”.

Xi told Canada’s current prime minister that China will never forget the decision to open diplomatic relations.

“There are many, many discussions that we’re going to be able to build on, but I’m not going to speculate on what those can be”, Trudeau said when asked about investment rules.

“You know, there’s a level of of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say ‘we need to go green fastest… we need to start investing in solar.’ I mean there is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about of having a dictatorship that he can do everything he wanted that I find quite interesting”.

“I celebrate well 45 years of strong relations between Canada and China”, Trudeau replied, as he also extended an invitation to the Chinese leader to visit Canada.

Trudeau called ISIL a “scourge” as he condemned Friday’s terror attack in Paris and a previous incident in Turkey during a dinner Sunday night at the Turkish resort of Antalya, where the G20 was meeting.

Trudeau also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Less than two weeks after his government was sworn into power, the G20 offers Mr. Trudeau the opportunity to meet the world’s most powerful political leaders for the first time as Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has told his fellow G20 leaders that Canada will continue to make a strong military contribution in the fight against Islamic militants – but it won’t be from the air.

As part of the USA military mission against ISIS, Canada’s six fighter jets have taken part in almost 200 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, or a fraction of the over 8,000 conducted to date as part of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS mission.

The Paris terror attacks claimed by IS have changed things for Trudeau.

Shortly after winning election in mid-October, Trudeau told Obama that Canada would stop attacking IS targets in Iraq and Syria.

“At the G20 meeting, Indonesia will raise an important issue – the reform of global financial architecture”, the President said at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta.

Canadian CF-18s were also in action in Iraq, striking an ISIL fighting position southeast of Haditha.