Dion sits down for first meeting with Russian foreign minister in years
OTTAWA — The Liberal government turned the page on two years of acrimony between Canada and Russia on Monday as Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion sat down for his first formal meeting with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
The 30-minute discussion took place in the tiny country of Laos, where Dion and Lavrov were attending an annual meeting of Southeast Asian nations. Sources say the location was chosen because it represented neutral ground for the two sides.
The meeting was the first of its kind between Canada and Russia in years. The previous Conservative government steadfastly refused to meet with anyone from the Kremlin until Russia left Crimea, the peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in March 2014.
As a result, contacts between the two countries had been largely limited to technical discussions between bureaucrats.