Deanna Horton: Long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy key to Canada being seen as a partner at the table cdnpoli (subs)
Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy needs to attract our southern neighbour's attention, and will have to make every effort to ensure that its engagement is meaningful and sustained in order to cement partner relations in Asia.
U.S. President Joe Biden, left, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Biden administration has been at pains to demonstrate its commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, including meeting with Xi on the margins of the G20 in Indonesia last week, writes Deanna Horton.
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Canada doesn’t understand the Indo-PacificFREDERICTON, N.B.—Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Global Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly were in the Asia Pacific, attending regional multilateral institutional meetings related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the G20 and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). When she returns, Joly has promised to finally release Canada’s policy on the “Indo-Pacific.” However, recent speeches by Joly, Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, and Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne foreshadow that policy, and indicate that Canada has chosen to make China an adversary. This decision illustrates how little independence Canadian policymakers feel they have from the United States. But it also illustrates how little Canada understands the Indo-Pacific region. Canada aligns with the U.S. insofar as both countries portray China as a “disruptive” influence which must be contained. This objective is opposed by most Asian states. In 2019, ASEAN issued its “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific,” in which it emphasizes the Asia Pacific as a region of co-operation and mutual benefit. Southeast Asia is not anti-Chinese. Indeed, regional states are telling Australia that it is going too far in its hostility to China. Southeast Asian states are wary of China’s size and power. They are concerned by China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea. They want the U.S. to balance China. However, they understand that China will always be their neighbour. Wariness of China does not mean they see it as a “threat.” They do not want to take sides in any competition between the two superpowers. America’s increasingly aggressive and provocative attacks on China seem designed to force a confrontation. America’s ideological rhetoric—which Canada has adopted—is alienating regional states. Freeland’s recent speech at the Brookings Institution in New York rejected the liberal international economic order. According to her, this order had failed to
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Is Canada trying to match or outdo American hostility to China?TORONTO—Is Canada trying to match or outdo American hostility to China? Government actions point to such an ill-considered approach. Rather than seeking to develop a more constructive relationship, while defending our values, the Trudeau government seems to be going out of its way to engage in its own Cold War with China. In a recent speech in Washington, D.C., Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland endorsed U.S. President Joe Biden’s plan for “near-shoring,” which means prioritizing imports from friendly allies rather than China. But it’s also a new form of protectionism that will fragment, at great expense, existing supply chains and result in higher prices for many products. While we must avoid dependence on one country for products critical to national security, that should be a very small list. Freeland’s visit to Washington was quickly followed by that of Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne where he, reportedly, promised to reduce Canadian imports from China, a lose-lose scenario since China could reduce imports from Canada. Returning to Canada, Champagne then ordered Chinese investors to sell their shares in three Canadian junior mining companies, because, he claimed, they threatened Canadian national security even though two of them were pursing projects in Chile and Argentina, not Canada. The order may have had more to do with accommodating U.S. efforts to reduce China’s presence in Latin America. Asked to explain, Industry Canada said “the government has concluded that a lack of secure access to critical minerals found and developed both within and outside of Canada, by Canadian firms, is a source of national security risk for Canada.” This is a dramatic shift from January when the government approved the $960-million takeover of Neo Lithium Corp., a Canadian company developing a lithium mine in Argentina, by a Chinese state-owned enterprise. The new policy will hurt small Canadian mining companies seeking capital and could weaken Canada’s role a
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New immigration targets essential for Canada's economic prosperityCanada is breaking records on immigration. The federal government recently announced increased targets for the next two years, with the intention to welcome a record 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025. Statistics Canada’s latest release from the 2021 census shows immigrants now make up a greater share of the population than at any point in our history as a country. The latest Focus Canada survey report breaks a record of a different kind: Canadians have never been more supportive of immigration than they are today, showing Canada truly stands out for its openness to diversity and change. These points also suggest an awareness of the vital contribution immigrants make to the country’s social and economic fabric. That may in part explain why Canadians have grown more open to immigration and multiculturalism, not less. The Focus Canada survey report found 70 per cent of Canadians support current immigration levels—the largest majority to do so in more than four decades of polling. Similarly, there is also growing public support for accepting refugees, not only from Ukraine, but also from countries such as Afghanistan. Three-in-four Canadians now agree we should accept more newcomers from parts of the world experiencing major conflicts—twice the proportion that held that view 20 years ago. This is remarkable at a time when nationalism, populism, and anti-immigrant sentiment are on the rise globally. But while Canada has been more welcoming than most nations, support for immigration in this country cannot be taken for granted. As the country wrestles with rising inflation, housing affordability, a strained health-care system, and an increasingly toxic political environment, support for immigration could erode. Our research shows concerns about immigration have to do with how quickly newcomers integrate into Canadian society. Canadians are fairly evenly divided as to whether there are too many immigrants coming to Canada who are not adopting our values. But the propo
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