Minister Mouynes Meets with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and Canadian Foreign Minister Joly at 9th Summit of the Americas

On June 8th, Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes joined U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly at the Civil Society Forum for a panel discussion as part of the Summit of the Americas. Hosted by the United States, this year’s Summit centered discussion around the theme of “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future“, and aimed to secure leader-level commitments to improve the future of the region.  

Speaking on the topics of civil society and anti-corruption, Minister Mouynes discussed the importance of unifying societies and their governments to combat regional crises such as climate change and COVID-19 and to hold strong against threats to gender equality, freedom of speech, and human rights more broadly. 

Additionally, Minister Mouynes noted the importance of “continuous action combined with retroactive assessments” to determine not only the successes and failures of the past but also the policy actions and implementation processes that caused them. In conjunction with Minister Joly and Secretary Blinken, the struggle against corruption was noted as a crucial element of strengthening the health of the region to “reverse the erosion of trust between societies and the governments who represent them”. She closed out the discussion by affirming the need to combat corruption as a top regional priority.  

Secretary Blinken supported the call for governments to listen and engage with all the stakeholders in society and re-emphasized the need to adopt, adhere to, and implement democratic principles in an equitable way across the region. He remarked that governance, in conjunction with civil society, will be key to strengthening the hemisphere.  

The full discussion can be streamed here.