Mélanie Joly

Mélanie Joly PC MP (French pronunciation: [melani ʒɔli]; born January 16, 1979) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who has served as minister of Foreign Affairs since October 2021.

At the latter firm, her mentor was former Parti Quebecois premier Lucien Bouchard, who supplied her with a letter of recommendation for her Oxford application.

[12] She is also a member of the collective group Sortie 13, for which she wrote "Les villes au pouvoir ou comment relancer le monde municipal québécois".

[30] In May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan voiced his opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, accusing the two countries of tolerating groups which Turkey classifies as terrorist organizations, including the Kurdish militant groups PKK and YPG and the supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of orchestrating a failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt.

[33] Following a vote on the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang, it was reported in May 2023 that Conservative MP Michael Chong's family in Hong Kong was targeted, including by a Chinese diplomat named Zhao Wei.

[34][35] The murder of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar caused a diplomatic crisis, with Canada–India relations falling to their lowest point.

[37] In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive against the self-declared breakaway state of Republic of Artsakh, a move seen by the European Parliament as a violation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.

[38] Joly expressed grave concern with Azerbaijan's military intervention, calling for immediate cessation of hostilities, asking the Azerbaijani government to refrain from any actions and activities that pose a risk to the safety and welfare of the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, labelling the military action as "unjustifiable" and the Lachin corridor blockade as "illegal".

[40] Joly was considered a possible candidate in the 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, upon the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

[41][42] On January 10, 2025, she announced that she would not enter the race to focus on the threat of tariffs on Canadian goods from the incoming second Trump administration, as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Joly, then the minister for economic development , stands in the front row alongside other foreign and development ministers during the 47th G7 summit , December 2021
Joly alongside Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal , January 2022