Canada: Chretien's visit to Syria aims at strengthening relations, boosting ME peace
Syria-Canada, Politics, 4/14/2000

The Canadian ambassador to Syria, Alexandra Bugailiskis has stated that the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to Syria on April 17 and 18 aims at strengthening bilateral relations between Syria and Canada and discussing means of giving a push forward to the peace process.

She stated that Chretien's visit of to Syria comes at the invitation of the Syrian government and in the framework of his tour of the region on April 8 through 19, adding that this tour covers Israel, the Palestinian self-rule territories, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

The ambassador denied in a press conference held on Thursday at the Canadian embassy in Damascus attended by several reporters and representatives of media establishments reports that Chretien proposed the idea of hosting 15,000 Palestinian refugees in Canada. She said, "Mr. Chretien had denied what had been stated in these reports and said that Canada will not interfere in drawing solutions directly, and that Canada prefers to stay neutral and will at any rate draw pre-prepared solutions."

She said that Canada established diplomatic relations with Syria in 1965 and opened its embassy in Damascus in 1985 and that Syria had opened its embassy in Ottawa in 1999. She continued that during the past phase visits of officials were exchanged between the two countries, noting that her country is taking part in the UNDOF (UN forces in the Golan) with a force of 190 members of the Canadian contingent and another 11 members working within the course of the truce agreement monitoring.

She remarked that economic relations between Canada and Syria are still under the required level, saying that commercial exchange between the two countries did not exceed US $23.4 million in 1999 and that the volume of Canadian exports to Syria was during that year US $21 million. She said the main Canadian exports to Syria were pipes, equipment, timber and zinc, whereas Syrian exports to Canada in 1999 were estimated at a cost of US $2.4 million and the main exports were garments and dried seeds and fruits.

Previous Stories:
  Canada wants a role in Syrian peace   (9/10/1999)
  Syria to accept UN forces in the Golan following Israeli withdrawal   (9/1/1999)
  Al-Sharaa meets Canadian prime minister   (6/24/1999)

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