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What International Organizations is Canada Member of

Being among the stable economies in the world, it comes only naturally that Canada is a full member of some of the most powerful and far-reaching international organizations. This article briefly discusses Canada’s status as a member of G8, G-20, NATO, OECD, WTO, Commonwealth, Francophonie, OAS, APEC, and United Nations.

G8 or the group of eight was created by France in 1975 as the group of the six most industrialized democracies in the world, including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The organization expanded to G7 the following year with the accession of Canada and to G8 in 1997, when Russia joined in. In general outlines, G 8 is an informal economic forum that addresses global challenges such as energy efficiency, famine and poverty tackling, global warming, etc. at its regular summits. More important, Canada will host a G8 summit in June 2010, which will mark a historic handover - the group will officially pass on the leadership to its broader daughter structure G20.

G20 is the group of the twenty advanced and emerging economies in the world which came into existence in 1999, following the 1997 financial crisis in Asia. As one of the leading members of its parental forum G8, it naturally follows that Canada plays a key role in G20, to such a great extent that some financial experts argue that the country will be the economic motor to pull the group out of the global recession. The road to recovery will be mapped out at a two-day meeting of the G20 leaders in June 2010 in Toronto.

Canada became one of the “founding fathers” of the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, along with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom. Other members are the United States, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland, together with one of its most active and reliable allies. Canada has demonstrated great commitment to the peace-keeping and peace-enforcement operations of the Alliance in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Canada is also one of the nineteen nations which founded the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Since its establishment, the federal government of Canada, and its more than thirty local governments and state agencies have been actively involved in all OECD activities. On its part, the Organization issues regular peer reviews on the Canadian economy, as well as on its development perspectives, social policy, environmental care strategies and energy policy.

Canada is also an outstanding member of the World Trade Organization, the Commonwealth Secretariat, which it joined in 1931, Francophonie (an international organization of the French), the Organization of the American States, the Association of the Petrol Exporting Countries and, of course, the United Nations. Canada is a member of UN since its establishment and served on the Security Council for twelve years. The country has contributed substantially to the organization’s peacekeeping operations around the world. Canada is also a member of the UN Human Rights Council since its establishment in 2006.