WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit both the US and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls on Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Boundary Waters Treaty, US officials said.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Thursday that Clinton will meet Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon after the centennial celebration for what is touted as the world’s first environmental agreement.
Clinton, who will make her first trip to Canada as secretary of state, is due to join Cannon for a press briefing afterward, he added.
The official commemoration in both Niagara Falls, New York and Niagara Falls, Ontario is taking place on June 13, even though the treaty was signed on January 11, 2009.
“The treaty provides principles for Canada and the United States to follow in using the waters they share,” according to a Canadian government website.
“For example, both countries must agree to any project that would change the natural levels or flows of boundary waters,” it added.
“Far ahead of its time, the treaty states that waters shall not be polluted on either side of the boundary to the injury of health or property on the other side,” the website said.
With the Great Lakes and other bodies of water, around 40 percent of the US-Canadian boundary is water, according to the independent International Joint Commission set up by the treaty to prevent and resolve boundary disputes.
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