Female foreign ministers convened in Montreal on Friday for an "historic" meeting co-hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and her counterpart in the European Union, Federica Mogherini.
Discussions about gender-based violence, feminist foreign policy and defending women’s rights are all on the two-day agenda.
In her opening remarks during the first session, Freeland said the meeting was “a historic moment,” and that, as far as she was aware, it was the first of its kind.
“As foreign ministers, all of us play crucial roles in representing our countries in the world. I think all of us appreciate very personally what a fraught job that is in the world today,” Freeland said.
“We all know that prosperity and peace and security are more likely in places where women, and all people in society can actively participate.”
There are 30 female foreign ministers in the world currently and 17 are attending two-day event from Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Costa Rica and Norway, among others.
Mogherini, whose official title is high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, told the gathered women that “we walked an incredible path to get here. Some of us were the first women to graduate in our families.
"Most of us were the first women foreign ministers in our country.”
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