Expand Canadian diplomacy and leadership on global issues and in international institutions.

What success looks like

Canadian diplomatic activities advance Canadian interests and values abroad.

Government's narrative on progress

Canada is active in multilateral fora and international institutions to pursue Canadian foreign policy interests and values. Canadian-led initiatives secured widespread support in UN fora—such as supporting humanitarian access and monitoring in Syria, addressing the violation of human rights in Iran, supporting women's political participation and leadership, combatting violence against women and girls, supporting compliance with international law, and promoting respect for diversity and inclusion. Canada is active in coordinating a hemispheric response to the crisis in Venezuela and hosted the third Ministerial meeting of the Lima Group in Toronto on October 26, 2017. In May 2018, Canada imposed a third round of targeted sanctions against top ranking Venezuelan government officials, bringing the total to 70. Between February and August of 2018, Canada played a leading role at the Human Rights Council in an expert-led investigation to monitor the human rights situation in Yemen and in March 2019 was part of two groups that advanced resolutions on the situations in Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. Canada hosted the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial in Vancouver in November 2017, which resulted in a significant number of new funding pledges and advanced the global peacekeeping reform agenda. The government also played a major role in the NATO Warsaw Summit by making Canada the leading country supporting NATO's enhanced Forward Presence in Latvia. Canada has used its G7 presidency to advance a common agenda based on respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law. In April 2018, Canada hosted the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, where ministers agreed to coordinate actions with the goal of building a more peaceful and secure world and to concrete shared commitments on the implementation of international humanitarian law and the advancement of the women, peace and security. G7 security and foreign ministers also committed to addressing international cyber threats, defending democracy against foreign threats and managing foreign terrorist fighters and associated travellers. In June 2018, G7 Leaders issued the Joint Communiqué and the Charlevoix Commitments, which include, among others, a commitment to establish a Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) to strengthen coordination to identify and respond to emerging threats. In November 2018, Canada hosted the first meeting of G7 RRM focal points. All G7 members were represented, and the meeting successfully negotiated the Terms of Reference and information/response protocols for the mechanism. Budget 2019 provides Global Affairs Canada with $2.1 million over three years, starting in 2019–20, to support Canada's commitment to the RRM. Canada, in partnership with the EU, co-hosted a meeting of women foreign ministers in Montréal on September 21 and 22, 2018, to enhance dialogue and cooperation in support of democracy, human rights and global peace and security. The meeting also advanced discussions on gender equality and women’s empowerment, including women’s equitable inclusion at all levels of decision making. On October 7, 2018, the member States and Governments of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) adopted the Organisation’s first policy on transparency consolidation, which aims to increase the OIFs effectiveness in pursuing its objectives and to ensure that it accounts for the use of public funds. Canada was the first member State to request such a policy and actively contributed to its drafting. Canada will now monitor the OIF’s implementation of this policy.

Note: this is the government's own description, not an independent assessment.