British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron visit the World War I French-British memorial of Thiepval, France Friday. Ludovic Marin, Pool via Reuters

PARIS - World leaders gathered in Paris will lead global commemorations on Sunday to mark 100 years since the end of World War I at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions.

Around 70 leaders including US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will mark the centenary of the 1918 Armistice in the French capital.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth will attend a separate event in London, while New Zealand and Australia are holding their own ceremonies.

The Paris commemorations, centered on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe, are set to feature warnings about the modern-day danger of nationalism.

"This day is not just about remembering, but should be about a call to action," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday after visiting the forest clearing in eastern France where the Armistice was signed.

Merkel will give the opening address alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at a conference called the Paris Peace Forum which will take place after a memorial service on the Champs-Elysees on Sunday morning.

Conceived by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Forum is intended to highlight the importance of international institutions in helping resolve conflicts, avert wars and spread prosperity.

TENSIONS LURK

But despite the show of unity at the Arc de Triomphe, where school children will read out messages written by soldiers in eight languages, tensions are expected to lurk beneath the surface.

US President Donald Trump, whose hardline nationalism has badly shaken the Western alliance, arrived in Paris on Friday criticizing host Macron for being "insulting."

Trump took umbrage at a recent interview in which Macron talked about the need for a European army and listed the US along with Russia and China as a threat to national security.

The "America First" leader, who faced criticism on Saturday for cancelling a trip to an American cemetery because of the rainy weather, will snub the Paris Peace Forum.



Other attendees of the memorial service and Forum include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Canadian premier Justin Trudeau and Israel's Benyamin Netanyahu, as well as Putin.

With far-right nationalist politicians coming to power from Brazil to Italy to Austria, 40-year-old centrist Macron is set to invoke the war to make the case for international cooperation.

"We want to make these commemorations a time to reflect on the present, not just the past, so that they have a meaning for us today," an aide to Macron said earlier this week.

He will deliver a short speech during Sunday's ceremony, which organizers have made deliberately international and cross-cultural.

The French-born Chinese-American cellist Yo-yo Ma will perform, as will West African singer Angelique Kidjo, and a European youth orchestra with a Russian conductor.

Some 10,000 police have been drafted in to ensure maximum security in a city repeatedly targeted by jihadists since 2015.

Macron is also set to speak later at UN cultural body UNESCO and at the Peace Forum.

The Forum is part of the "fightback" against nationalism worldwide, chief organizer Justin Vaisse told AFP as he played down the significance of Trump's decision not to attend.

"The aim of the forum is to show that there are lots of forces in the international system -- states, NGOs, foundations, intellectuals, companies -- who believe we need a world of rules, an open world and a multilateral world," he said.

OTHER CEREMONIES

About 70 current-day nations were involved in the conflict that had six empires and colonial powers at its heart: Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

Around 10 million soldiers are generally estimated to have been killed during the fighting and more than double that number wounded overall.

Between five and 10 million civilians are estimated to have been killed.

In Britain, church bells are set to ring out across the country at 11 am, at the same time as a national remembrance service at the Cenotaph in London.

In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will address crowds at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Sunday morning.</s>PARIS (AP) — World leaders with the power to make war but a duty to preserve the peace gathered by the dozens Sunday to mark the end of World War I's slaughter 100 years ago, turning Paris in the epicenter of global commemorations that drove home a powerful message: never again.

Over 60 heads of state and government were taking part in a solemn ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the mute and powerful symbol of sacrifice to the millions who died from 1914-18.

The Paris weather — grey and damp — seemed aptly fitting when remembering a war fought in mud and relentless horror.

The commemorations started late, overshooting the centenary of the exact moment when, 100 years earlier at 11 a.m., the eerie silence of peace replaced the thunder of guns on the Western France. As bells marking the armistice hour started ringing out across Paris and in many nations hit by the four years of slaughter, French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders were still on their way to the centennial site at the Arc de Triomphe.

Under a sea of black umbrellas, a line of leaders led by Macron and his wife, Brigitte, marched in a stony silence on the cobbles of the Champs-Elysees, after dismounting from their buses.

Heads of states and world leaders attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived separately, in a motorcade that drove past two topless protesters with anti-war slogans on their chests who somehow got through the rows of security and were quickly bundled away by police. The Femen group claimed responsibility.

The motorcade of President Donald Trump drives up the Champs Elysees to an Armistice Day Centennial Commemoration at the Arc de Triomphe, Sunday Nov. 11, 2018, in Paris.

Last to arrive was Russian President Vladimir Putin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was positioned in pride of place between Trump and Macron, a powerful symbol of victors and vanquished now standing together, shoulder to shoulder. Overhead, fighter jets ripped through the sky, trailing red, white and blue smoke.

French President's Emmanuel Macron's wife Brigitte and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris.

The geographical spread of the leaders in attendance showed how the "war to end all wars" left few corners of the earth untouched but which, little more than two decades later, was followed so quickly and catastrophically by the even deadlier World War II.

On the other side of the globe, Australia and New Zealand held ceremonies to recall how the war killed and wounded soldiers and civilians in unprecedented numbers and in gruesome new, mechanized ways.

Those countries lost tens of thousands of soldiers far away in Europe and, most memorably in the brutal 1915 battle of Gallipoli, in Turkey.

In Paris, the jewel that Germany sought to capture in 1914 but which the Allies fought successfully to defend, the armistice commemorations were being followed by the afternoon opening of a peace forum pushed by the host, French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump will be the most notable absentee at the forum, where Macron's defense of multilateralism will take center stage. Trump lives by an "America First" credo, and plans to visit the American cemetery at Suresnes on the outskirts of Paris before heading home.

On Saturday, he was criticized for canceling a visit to the Belleau Wood battleground northeast of Paris because of rain.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, right, welcome German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris.

In the four years of fighting, remembered for brutal trench warfare and the first use of gas, France, the British empire, Russia and the United States had the main armies opposing a German-led coalition that also included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. Almost 10 million soldiers died, sometimes tens of thousands on a single day.

The United States came late to the war, in April 1917, but over 1½ years it became a key player in the conflict and tipped the scales for the allies. When the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918, the U.S. armed forces was on the cusp of becoming the major military power in the world.

Even though Germany was at the heart of provoking two world wars over the past century, the nation has become a beacon of European and international cooperation since.

On Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the head of the United Nations, born from the ashes of World War II, and the president of Serbia. It was a Serb teenager, Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated the Austro-Hungarian crown prince in Sarajevo in 1914 to set off events which led to the outbreak of war.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Commemorations are underway around the world to mark the moment 100 years ago when the slaughter of World War I finally stopped.

France, the epicenter of the first global conflict, was hosting the main international commemoration, pressing home the point that the world mustn't stumble into war again, as it did so quickly and catastrophically with World War II.

The more than 60 world leaders scheduled to gather at precisely 11 a.m., a century after the cease-fire, included those with the power to destroy humanity if it ever stumbled into the folly of a World War III.

The U.S. and Russian presidents were being joined by an array of leaders whose geographical spread showed how the "war to end all wars" left few corners of the earth untouched.

On the other side of the globe, the first countries and territories to see the dawn kicked off the commemorations, pushing for peace with the simple act of recalling how the 1914-1918 war killed and wounded soldiers and civilians in unprecedented numbers and in gruesome new, mechanized ways.

Australia and New Zealand lost tens of thousands of people on foreign fields far away in Europe and, most memorably in the brutal 1915 battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. Both commemorated their dead Sunday.

In Paris, the jewel that Germany sought to capture in 1914 but which the Allies fought successfully to defend, commemorations were centered around the Arc de Triomphe, where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents the sacrifice of all those who gave their lives.</s>PARIS (AP) — Commemorations are underway around the world to mark the moment 100 years ago when the slaughter of World War I finally stopped.

France, the epicenter of the first global conflict, was hosting the main international commemoration, pressing home the point that the world mustn't stumble into war again, as it did so quickly and catastrophically with World War II

The more than 60 world leaders scheduled to gather at precisely 11 a.m., a century after the cease-fire, included those with the power to destroy humanity if it ever stumbled into the folly of a World War III.

The U.S. and Russian presidents were being joined by an array of leaders whose geographical spread showed how the "war to end all wars" left few corners of the globe untouched.</s>PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron will be joined by some 70 world leaders on Sunday to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice that brought World War One to an end, and to honor the millions of soldiers who died in the conflict.

It was at 11.00 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, that the guns fell silent across the western front, heralding the end of a four-year conflict that claimed the lives of 10 million combatants and millions of civilians.

One hundred years later, Macron will pay tribute to those soldiers and their families in an address delivered at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, built by Emperor Napoleon in 1806, where an unknown soldier killed in the Great War is buried.

U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are among the dozens of monarchs, heads of state and government due to attend the ceremony, before lunch with Macron at the Elysee Palace.

In a rare public display of emotion by the leaders of two world powers, Macron and Merkel held hands on Saturday during a poignant ceremony in the Compiegne Forest, north of Paris, where French and German delegations signed the Armistice that ended the war.

Testimonies written by soldiers on Nov. 11, 1918, as the ceasefire took hold, will be read at Sunday’s event by high school students in French, English and German.

The conflict was one of the bloodiest in history, reshaping Europe’s politics and demographics. Peace, however, was short-lived and two decades later Nazi Germany invaded its neighbors.

On Sunday afternoon, Macron will host the inaugural Paris Peace Forum, which seeks to promote a multilateral approach to security and governance and ultimately avoid the errors that led to the outbreak of World War One.

Merkel said in a statement the forum showed that “today there is a will, and I say this on behalf of Germany with full conviction, to do everything to bring a more peaceful order to the world, even though we know we still have much work to do.”

Trump, who champions a nationalist ‘America first’ policy, will not attend the forum.

The U.S. leader has said he will also not hold a bilateral meeting with Putin in Paris. Trump and Putin are expected to have formal talks later this month when both attend a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.

Should the two leaders chat briefly during Sunday’s events, their body language will be closely scrutinized.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and any possible collusion with Trump’s campaign.</s>The commemorations started late, overshooting the centenary of the exact moment when, 100 years earlier at 11 a.m., the eerie silence of peace replaced the thunder of guns on the Western France. As bells marking the armistice hour started ringing out across Paris and in many nations hit by the four years of slaughter, French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders were still on their way to the centennial site at the Arc de Triomphe.</s>In London, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first German head of state to place a wreath at the Cenotaph war memorial in central London. He arrived with Prince Charles, who laid the first wreath on behalf of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who looked on from a nearby balcony.

The wreath that Steinmeier laid at the cenotaph bore the following handwritten message: "Honored to remember side by side/Grateful for reconciliation/Hopeful for a future in peace and friendship."

Ahead of the ceremony, the British government said Steinmeier's wreath was laid "in a historic act of reconciliation."

Some 70 world leaders gathered at the famous Arc de Triomphe in the French capital to mark 100 years since the end of World War I.

Commemorations in Paris had been scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time (1000 UTC), the time that the Armistice signed by the Allies and the Germans on November 11, 1918, went into force. However, the proceedings were slightly delayed, with leaders arriving too late for the exact moment.

The large number of countries represented in Paris reflects the widespread nature of a conflict in which an estimated 37 million people, including 10 million soldiers, lost their lives. The city of Paris itself was a key objective in the war, with the Allies fighting successfully against German efforts to capture it in 1914.

The solemn ceremony, held in rainy conditions, featured schoolchildren reading moving messages written by soldiers in eight languages, as well as musical performances, including by French-born Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma and West African singer Angelique Kidjo.

French President Emmanuel Macron held an address in which he described the joy at the end of the conflict, but also remembered the horrors and millions of dead and wounded.

In his speech, he called the nationalism that underlay the war a betrayal of patriotism. He appealed for friendship and dialogue between the nations to create a peaceful future.

"The old demons are rising again," Macron said. "We must reaffirm before our peoples our true and huge responsibility: that of passing on to our children the world that previous generations dreamed of."

"Together, we can banish the specters of climate change, poverty, hunger, illness, all the

 inequalities and every ignorance," he added

 Read more: World War I: Europe and the politics of remembrance

The Paris commemorations were preceded by ceremonies in New Zealand, Australia, India, Hong Kong and Myanmar, former British colonies that lost tens of thousands of people sent to fight in the war.

Although Sunday's ceremonies celebrate an act that brought a short-lived peace to the world, they are taking place at a time of growing nationalism and international tensions.

US President Donald Trump, one of the leaders attending the event, is seen by many as undermining the Western alliance and world bodies such as the UN with his self-declared nationalism.

Trump will not be present at the Paris Peace Forum conceived by Macron to highlight the importance of international institutions for global peace and prosperity.

The Forum is to be opened with a speech given by German Chancellor Angela Merkel alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Some of those who participated in Sunday's commemorations had relatives who fought in what is often known as the "Great War," and had come a long way to be in Paris, as DW's Bernd Riegert reported.

Other attendees of the memorial service and Forum included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump and Putin greeted each other and shook hands at the ceremony, Russian television showed. The gesture comes as relations between their two countries remain strained, among other things because of alleged Russian interference in recent US elections.

The US president pointedly did not extend his hand to Trudeau. Earlier this year, Trump described the Canadian premier as "dishonest and weak" amid a dispute over what he alleges are Canada's "unfair" trade practices.

As Trump's motorcade made its way up the Champs-Elysees, it was temporarily halted after two topless protesters approached it wearing slogans on their bodies. Police quickly overpowered the protesters, whom the feminist group Femen claimed as its own.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>PARIS (AP) — Traveling from across the world to battlefields where their soldiers fell 100 years ago, victors and vanquished alike marked those sacrifices ahead of Sunday’s Armistice Day and assessed alliances that have been dramatically redrawn since those dark days.

A century ago, the entry of U.S. troops into World War I tipped the momentum toward its allies, including France and Britain. On Saturday, even as he began two days of remembrance of the 1914-18 war, U.S. President Donald Trump said his nation bears far too much of the burden to defend the West.

A flurry of Armistice-related diplomacy once again turned Paris, the jewel that Germany sought to take in 1914 but which the Allies fought to defend, into the center of global attention Saturday, with dozens of world leaders arriving for solemn commemorations planned Sunday.

After an awkward meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump cancelled a visit to the defining battleground of Belleau Wood because of bad weather. Macron set off to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

No separate meeting between Trump and Merkel was planned. Instead, Merkel was marking how her nation’s bloodstained history with France has become a close alliance that is now the driving force behind the European Union. She and Macron were to visit the site where the armistice was signed in a railway carriage in Compiegne, north of Paris.

In four years of fighting, remembered for brutal trench warfare and the first use of gas, France, the British empire, Russia and the United States had the main armies opposing a German-led coalition that also included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.

Yet, despite a war that was supposed to end all wars, World War II pitted both sides against each other once again.

Across the line that once marked the Western Front, leaders lauded the courage of soldiers who were killed during the unprecedented slaughter, before converging on Paris for a dinner.

The armistice entered into force on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, and on Sunday 69 world leaders will mark the centennial of the event at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, underneath the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris.

At dawn Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Vimy Ridge, the battlefield in northern France where Canada found its sense of self when it defeated German opposition against the odds.

Standing amid the white headstones against an ashen sky, Trudeau addressed the fallen, saying what Canada has achieved in the past century has been “a history built on your sacrifice. You stand for the values on which Canada was built.”

In southern Belgium’s Mons, Canadians were also lauding George Price, the last Commonwealth soldier to die in the war when he was shot by a German sniper two minutes before the armistice took effect.

Trump was looking beyond the tragedy of death and destruction, asking in a tweet: “Is there anything better to celebrate than the end of a war, in particular that one, which was one of the bloodiest and worst of all time?”

After his meeting with Macron, Trump had been scheduled to head to the battlefield of Belleau Wood, 90 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of the capital, where U.S. troops had their breakthrough battle by stopping a German push for Paris shortly after entering the war in 1917.

The battle of Belleau Wood proved America’s mettle to allies and foes alike, and by the time the war ended U.S. forces were at least an equal to any of the other major armies, which were exhausted and depleted.

However, Trump canceled his visit because of bad weather.

For more information on World War I, go to The Associated Press' WWI hub.</s>PARIS — Travelling from across the world to monuments honouring soldiers who fell 100 years ago, victors and vanquished alike marked those sacrifices Saturday ahead of Armistice Day and assessed alliances that have been redrawn dramatically since the dark days of the First World War.

The leaders of former enemies France and Germany, in an intimate gesture that underscored their countries’ current roles as guarantors of peace in Europe, held their heads together at the site north of Paris where the defeated Germans and the Allies signed the agreement that ended the 1914-18 war.

After Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly snuggled her head into the neck of French President Emmanuel Macron, the two went inside a replica of the train car where the armistice was reached and put their names in a guestbook. Macron then took Merkel’s hand in his, again highlighting the changes on the continent where two world wars were fought in the 20th century.

“Our Europe has been at peace for 73 years. There is no precedent for it, and it is at peace because we willed it and first and foremost, because Germany and France wanted it,” he said.

Merkel was equally convinced of the power their friendship exudes.

“The will is there, and I say this for Germany with full conviction, to do everything to achieve a more peaceful order in the world even though we know we have very, very much work still ahead of us,” she said.

The open show of affection was a welcome antidote for Macron. Earlier Saturday, the French leader had a somewhat awkward meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. As Air Force One landed in Paris on Friday night, Trump wrote on Twitter he had been “very” insulted by comments Macron made in the days before that he considered anti-American.
• Canada at its deadliest: The epic war-winning battle you’ve never heard of

A century ago, the entry of U.S. troops into World War I tipped the momentum toward its allies, including France and Britain. Even as he embarked on two days of observances for the Nov. 11, 1918 armistice, Trump said the United States now bears far too much of the burden to defend the West.

A flurry of Armistice-related diplomacy once again turned Paris, the jewel that Germany sought to take in 1914 but which the Allies successfully fought to defend, into the centre of global attention Saturday as dozens of world leaders arrived in the French capital on the eve of the solemn centennial commemorations.

Merkel’s appearance in Compiegne marked how her nation’s bloodstained history with France has become a close alliance that is now the driving force behind the European Union.

In the four years of fighting, remembered for brutal trench warfare and the first use of gas, France, the British empire, Russia and the U.S. had the main armies opposing a German-led coalition that also included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.

Yet, despite a war that was supposed to end all wars, the Second World War pitted both sides against each other once again in 1940.

Across the line that once marked the Western Front, leaders lauded the courage of soldiers who were killed during the unprecedented slaughter, before converging on Paris for a dinner.

The armistice entered into force on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, and on Sunday 69 world leaders will commemorate the centennial of the event at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, underneath the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris.

At dawn Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went to Vimy Ridge, the battlefield in northern France where Canada found its sense of self when it defeated German opposition against the odds.

Standing amid the white headstones against an ashen sky, Trudeau addressed the fallen, saying what Canada has achieved in the past century has been “a history built on your sacrifice. You stand for the values on which Canada was built.”

In southern Belgium’s Mons, Canadians were also lauding George Price, the last Commonwealth soldier to die in the war when he was shot by a German sniper two minutes before the armistice took effect.

Trump was looking beyond the tragedy of death and destruction, asking in a tweet: “Is there anything better to celebrate than the end of a war, in particular that one, which was one of the bloodiest and worst of all time?”

After his meeting with Macron, Trump had been scheduled to head to the battlefield of Belleau Wood, 90 kilometres (55 miles) northeast of the capital, where U.S. troops had their breakthrough battle by stopping a German push for Paris shortly after entering the war in 1917.

The battle of Belleau Wood proved America’s mettle to allies and foes alike, and by the time the war ended U.S. forces were at least an equal to any of the other major armies, which were exhausted and depleted.

However, Trump cancelled his visit because of bad weather and immediately came in for criticism.

“It’s incredible that a president would travel to France for this significant anniversary — and then remain in his hotel room watching TV rather than pay in person his respects to the Americans who gave their lives in France for the victory gained 100 years ago tomorrow,” David Frum, a speechwriter for former president George W. Bush, tweeted.

The White House sent a delegation that included chief of staff John Kelly in Trump’s place. Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, said the White House should have had a fallback plan for the president.

“There is always a rain option. Always,” Rhodes said.

Trump is scheduled to visit a different U.S. cemetery close to Paris on Sunday.</s>A wall of world leaders walked somberly through the centre of Paris today, turning the annual Nov. 11 ceremony in the French capital into a global reminder of the horrors of the First World War and the efforts to prevent it from happening again.

Holding black umbrellas, the leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing a poppy on his lapel, walked in a cold rain with stoic faces for a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Church bells rang out as the hour turned to 11 a.m. local time, marking the moment the guns fell silent across Europe a century ago.

The more than 60 leaders departed buses and walked a few steps on the Champs-Elysees before taking up their seats beneath the iconic Arc de Triomphe, under which is an eternal flame and tomb of the unknown soldier.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin each joined the group separately once everyone was in their place to start the commemoration of the end to the “War to End All Wars.”

Some 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the First World War, and more than 66,000 of them lost their lives. About 172,000 more were injured.

Others served behind the front lines, working with locals to aid the war effort.

Kareen Rispal, France’s ambassador to Canada, said Trudeau’s appearance at the ceremony — he sat two seats to French President Emmanuel Macron’s right — is a reminder of Canada’s contributions during the First World War that aren’t always recognized.

“We as French, we as Europeans — I think we don’t value enough the effort made by the Canadians,” Rispal said in an interview Friday.

Macron used his speech Sunday to warn of how fragile peace can be in an age where the tensions that gave rise to four years of bloody battle, costing millions of lives, appear to be festering again. In his speech, he told the assembled masses that the “traces of this war never went away.”

“We must reaffirm before our peoples our true and huge responsibility,” he said.

Rispal said the theme of peace, and the price needed to keep it, were central not only to the commemoration, but a newly created summit French officials hope to make an annual event. Trudeau will take part in the Paris Peace Forum, as it is being called, on Sunday afternoon in Paris.

On Saturday, Trudeau thanked Canadian soldiers past and present for their service when he visited the memorial at Vimy Ridge and walked among the tombstones in a cemetery, some of which had names, others marked with simply “a soldier of the great war.”

Veterans and those in the military today carry the legacy of those who fought a century ago in the trenches of the First World War, Trudeau said, honouring the memory of all service members who have paid the ultimate price.

“You stand for the values upon which Canada was built, values like democracy, equality, justice and liberty,” Trudeau said.

“You risked it all to help the most vulnerable and free the oppressed. You chose to live your life in service of others driven by profound sense of duty and for that, Canadians can never thank you enough.”

With files from the Associated Press
Around 70 world leaders in Paris mark the centenary of the 1918 Armistice which ended World War I.