WASHINGTON, October 28 (RIA Novosti) – US State Secretary John Kerry will travel to Ottawa on Tuesday to express condolences after last week's shootings that claimed lives of two Canadian soldiers, Spokesperson for the US Department of State Jen Psaki said.
"Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Ottawa, Canada, on October 28 for a series of bilateral meetings and to convey condolences to senior Canadian officials following last week's attacks in Canada," Psaki said at a briefing Monday.
Kerry will express the United States' solidarity with the Canadian people, "reaffirming the close friendship and alliance" between the two countries, according to Psaki.
"The Secretary will emphasize steadfast US support for our Canadian partners, continued close cooperation in our shared approach to countering violent extremism, and our commitment to stand beside our Canadian neighbors and friends," the spokesperson said.
Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird and US State Secretary John Kerry will hold talks in Ottawa "on a range of important international and bilateral issues," according to a press release on the Government of Canada website.
On October 22, a gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot dead a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa and then proceeded to Parliament Hill's Center Block, where he was killed in a shootout with a policeman. Two days earlier, in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec another radicalized Canadian Martin Rouleau hit two Canadian soldiers with his car, killing one and injuring the other.
