- Canada will recognise the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September 2025
- Prime Minister Mark Carney cited the need to preserve the two-state solution in his announcement
- Canada joins France in recognising Palestine, following President Emmanuel Macron's similar plan
Canada plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, a dramatic policy shift he said was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution.
"Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025," Carney said.
With Wednesday's announcement, Carney positioned Canada alongside France, after President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognize a Palestinian state during the UN meeting, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.
Macron's announcement drew condemnation from Israel, which said the move "rewards terror," while US President Donald Trump dismissed the decision as pointless.
Carney said his decision was informed by Canada's "long-standing" belief in a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"That possibility of a two-state solution is being eroded before our eyes," the prime minister told reporters in Ottawa.
He referenced Israel's "ongoing failure" to prevent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza amid its war against Hamas, as well the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
"For decades, it was hoped that (a two-state solution) would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority," he said.
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