Apec Summit a great opportunity to tackle global economic challenges, says Canada's ambassador
Canada’s Ambassador Sarah Taylor has praised Thailand for hosting the Apec Summit at a difficult time in global affairs.
In an interview to the news agency Bangkokbiz, published on Tuesday, Taylor said Canada attached great importance to the Asia Pacific Economic Conference.
She said, “We, as well as Thailand, are founding members of Apec. The Asia-Pacific region is important not only for the global economy but also for our trading as well. The region accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s GDP while most Canadian bilateral trade partners are in the Asia-Pacific region."
She said that Canada is well prepared as they had waited for the meeting for a long time since the Covid-19 pandemic, and leaders of the Asia-Pacific region had not met for two years. “It will be a great chance to meet and solve important economic challenges in the region and world,” she said.
Taylor said that Canada has three important subjects for discussions at the meeting: Bangkok Goals on the bio-circular-green model, sustainability, and global economic challenges rising from the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
She praised Thailand as the host because of the political difficulties it faced because Russia is also an Apec member.
At a ministerial meeting in May, some countries — Canada, the US, and Japan — condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine by walking out.
She said, “Everything will be easy when everyone agrees, but diplomacy and cooperation will be really important when there is disagreement so this Apec Summit is important.”
She lauded the strong bilateral relationship between Thailand and Canada as the two countries celebrated the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties last year while trading value reached an all-time high.
However, she said that she still had a lot of work to do for the relationship with Thailand and the region.
“It is important for people to get to know each other so having direct flights is a good thing. During holidays, more Thai people are coming to visit or study in Canada while more Canadians also want to visit Thailand, which will help the recovery to be sustainable,” she said.
She added that Canada had signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s Education Ministry for Canadian people to teach the English language in Thai schools next year.
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