Prime Minister Trudeau pledges $990,000 to clear landmines, cluster bombs in Cambodia and Laos

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced nearly $1 million to help clear unexploded landmines and cluster bombs from Southeast Asia.

As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit concludes in Cambodia, he pledged $990,000 to an event focused on women’s security.

The funds are to support grassroots and government projects in Cambodia and Laos to clear unexploded ordnance orders resulting from the civil war and American bombing during the Vietnam War.

Since the 1990s, Canada has been lobbying countries in the region to stop using this type of ammunition and to fund its restoration.

Earlier in the day, Trudeau met with the head of the ASEAN bloc, who commended him for making Southeast Asia the focus of Canada’s future Indo-Pacific strategy.

Prime Minister Trudeau will then visit the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which documents the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime.