Canadian Prime Minister wraps up Vacation in SKN
(ZIZ News) — Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has wrapped up a 10-day family vacation in St. Kitts and Nevis.
St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister, Dr. Hon. Timothy Harris and Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Mark Brantley met the visiting leader at the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport ahead of his departure on Friday.
While there, Harris and Brantley underscored the strong relationship between St. Kitts and Nevis and Canada.
Minister Brantley said Trudeau’s decision to choose the Federation as his vacation destination is a demonstration of the friendship that still exists between both nations.
“Canada is a longstanding ally of St. Kitts and Nevis and we feel that the fact that he chose St. Kitts and Nevis demonstrates that Canada is still a good friend and so for our purposes, it is a good springboard to engage in further discussions with Canada as we try to deepen and widen our relationship,” he said.
Prime Minister Harris echoed similar sentiments, adding that St. Kitts and Nevis stands to benefit in the future from this visit.
“We are happy that we were able to accord them the privacy that they deserved so that they could go about their time here savouring the beauty of our country and our special delights and develop, as a consequence, very memorable moments in St. Kitts and Nevis,” Dr. Harris said adding “we know that this auger well for future engagements between St. Kitts and Nevis as a destination of preference for the high officials of the Government of Canada.”
Dr. Harris said it is also important as his government continues to try and persuade the Canadian Government to restore the visa-free travel access to nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“We have traditionally had an extremely good relationship with the Government and people of Canada. Of course there was one major disruption in that relationship when the former government so sullied the operations of the Citizenship by Investment Programme that Canada, of course, was forced to revoke the visa-free access which our people enjoyed to Canada. And so, that is something that has been high on the foreign affairs agenda of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis and in all of our visits with him of course we put that on the agenda,” he said.