His Majesty King Abdullah’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Paris on Wednesday focused on the deep-rooted ties of friendship between the two countries, as well as regional developments.

The discussions, held on the sideline of the high-level meeting on the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, King Abdullah expressed his appreciation to Canada for its ongoing support for Jordan.

In remarks at the top of the meeting, His Majesty said Jordan and Canada have a shared history that goes back many decades.

“Canada has been a voice of reason and common sense for the challenges that we have in our part of the world, and I think this is what has allowed us to work so well together,” the King said.

“In the past couple of months we have, I think, identified other hurdles and obstacles we need to overcome, and I am absolutely convinced that with our relationship between our two countries, we will find a glass-half-full solution to all the challenges that we have,” His Majesty added.

For his part, Prime Minister Trudeau said the meeting is “an opportunity to continue these conversations we’ve been having over many years now on a broad range of issues, but mostly on how we’re going to work together to promote a more peaceful, more open, more stable, more understanding world.”

Prime Minister Trudeau commended the King’s “leadership on bridging diversity and bringing people together, as we continue today in the tech sector to counter radicalisation.”

“This is something that I value so much—an opportunity to continue to sit down with you and talk about how we are going to work together to build a better world,” he added.

The peace process topped the issues discussed between the King and the Canadian prime minister, with His Majesty stressing the need to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state solution, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 4 June 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Discussions also covered cooperation and coordination between Jordan and Canada in countering terrorism and extremism as part of the framework of international efforts to counter terrorism within a holistic approach. The King noted Canada’s important role in this regard.

His Majesty called for unifying efforts by governments and global tech companies and maintaining coordination on various initiatives to counter hate speech and work to promote the values of tolerance and dialogue.

The King pointed to the importance of the Aqaba Process meetings, which aim to enhance security and military coordination and cooperation, as well as exchanging expertise and information among regional and international stakeholders to counter terrorism.

Discussing the Syrian crisis, His Majesty reaffirmed the importance of reaching a political solution that preserves the territorial integrity of Syria and the unity of its people, while ensuring the safe return of refugees.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Adviser to His Majesty for Communication and Coordination Bisher Khasawneh attended the meeting.