Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Agra, India Sunday night to begin a six-day tour of the country. His itinerary includes a mix of cultural, business and political events.
I’m part among the group of journalists covering the PM’s tour. It’s just after 6 a.m. Monday morning in Agra as I post this and here’s a look at what the PM is up to Monday in India. Continue reading Harper's Asia tour: Day 1 itinerary
I’m part of the press corps that will be following Prime Minister Stephen Harper around Asia for the next several days. We leave Saturday. First stop is in India. Last time Harper was there (with me in tow as well), we visited the Golden Temple (me and said Temple, below) in Amritsar (spectacular) and this time, the Taj Mahal is on the itinerary. Never seen it.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has firmed up his itinerary for travel next week in Asia, announcing Wednesday that he will stop in the Philippines and Hong Kong.
I’ll be among a large group of reporters from the Parliamentary Press Gallery tagging along to cover the trip. Continue reading Harper heads to India, Philippines and Hong Kong
The Times of India, in a rather breathless report, says: Continue reading Canadian, Austrialian PMs could meet in the Punjab
Earlier today:
A pair of Iranian dissidents — a jailed human rights lawyer (above) and a banned filmmaker (below) — were named winners Friday of the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov Prize Continue reading Iranian dissidents win esteemed human rights prize
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde (above), the former French finance minister (and first female, one might note, to hold the position of finance minister in any G8 country, including Canada), was in Toronto this evening where, among other things, she thanked Canadians for lending the world the “wise counsel” of Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney (he is doing double duty as bank governor and as chair of the G20’s Financial Stability Board) and then almost certainly put herself on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Christmas Card list by not only praising the country’s financial record but using a hockey analogy to do so! Continue reading IMF chief Lagarde praises Canada. Mentions Wayne Gretzky!
The Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete, is in Canada this week on an official visit. This afternoon, after meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the two men took some questions from reporters. The press were allotted a total of four questions, two from each country’s press corps. The Canadian press corps gets further subdivided into one English-language question and one French-language question. Hélène Buzzetti of Le Devoir asked the French-language question, a question that was really only for Harper as it was about the Port of Montreal. The English-language reporters — CP, Bloomberg, Toronto Star, Reuters, Postmedia and Sun — came to a consensus that we wanted to ask Harper about the Nexen deal and I drew the straw to put the question to the PM. But, given that Tanzania also relies heavily on foreign investment to develop its resource sector, I thought it would be interesting to hear President Kikwete’s views on how Tanzania handles investment proposals from companies that originate in countries, like China, that do not share Tanzania’s democratic values. Continue reading So, President Kikwete, can you help us work through our Nexen problem?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper hosts Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on Parliament Hill this afternoon. It’s not the first time the two men have met. In fact, their personal relationship goes back to 2007, when Harper made his first trip to the African continent as Prime Minister. Harper was in Africa then to attend the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, Uganda. I was part of the press contingent that travelled with Harper to cover that meeting.
Call it cruel coincidence but today, on Yom Kippur, the holiest of days for Jews around the world, the United Nations gives its most prestigious speaking platform — the podium at the General Assembly — to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Somehow doubt he’ll be wishing his Jewish friends an “easy fast.”
The General Assembly session kicks off at 0900 EDT with a speech from Yemen’s H.E. Mr. Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi Mansour.
Continue reading Madmen at the UN today: Iran's Ahmadinejad and Zimbabwe's Mugabe
Last weekend in Vladivostok, Russia, at the annual summit of the Pacific nation leaders who are part of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met Russian President Vladimir Putin for 50 minutes. The two men, flanked by half a dozen officials on either side, met for about 50 minutes. They talked about a range of issues. Harper questioned free speech rights in Putin’s Russia. In defending free speech rights, Putin used the phrase “gang bang”. I found that odd enough that I wrote about it here.
The two men also talked about the situation in Syria. Continue reading Putin calls Harper a "Trotskyite" and other post-Arab Spring reflections
