TORONTO, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived here Tuesday to start his three-day visit to Canada.
Zelensky is expected to meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a three-day international conference named The Ukraine Reform Conference which opens Tuesday.
The conference is co-hosted by Canada and Ukraine. Representatives from 30 countries and international institutions including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are attending the conference hosted by Canada.
Trudeau said in a statement that he wants to use the meeting with Zelensky to reaffirm Canada's deep commitment to the Ukrainian people.
Canada was the first Western country to recognize Ukraine's independence in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. Canada has supplied Ukraine with 785 million Canadian dollars (about 598 million U.S. dollars) worth of assistance since 2014, statistics showed.
Canada is also home to 1.3 million people of Ukrainian descent, which makes it one of the country's most influential diaspora communities.
Canada's two-way merchandise trade with Ukraine totalled 346 million Canadian dollars (about 264 million U.S. dollars) in 2018.
