HITS, MISSES IN DIPLOMACY
Last week’s searing failure of leadership by U.S. President Donald Trump after the brazen neo-Nazi display of muscle in Virginia prompts a spate of worrying questions. One of which is: Does Canada have the relationship right with this U.S. administration?
Media reports of a “friendship” between Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary, Gerry Butts, and Trump’s now ousted alt-right adviser Steve Bannon raised speculation we might be cosying up to America at a too-high moral cost. Few Canadians, though, seriously thought Butts supported what Bannon represented.
A good reason to think we’re doing OK is our thorough preparation for the tough NAFTA talks now underway. Early last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland spelled out publicly what our team seeks from the talks. She took media questions and provided serious answers. Commendably, the minister is ensuring Canadians are looped in on Team Canada’s approach.
The Canadian government did something else extraordinary recently: It negotiated the release from North Korea of Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim, imprisoned under a sentence of hard labour. A senior emissary for the Prime Minister’s Office led the team that secured Lim’s freedom.
These are signs of smart diplomacy, and on their face they tell Canadians that the Liberals — even when faced with inconsistent and mentally volatile leaders — know what they are doing on the world stage and understand they must be accountable for it.
Which makes some of our other moves more glaringly unacceptable.
Days before opening NAFTA talks with the U.S., Freeland met in Beijing with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also to talk trade. Freeland didn’t hold detailed public briefings, and Canadians remain largely in the dark about how we plan to resolve our fundamentally conflicting interests with China over human rights, security and commerce.
Meanwhile, the government continues to stumble over arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Recently released footage appears to show Saudi forces using Canadian-made lightarmoured vehicles against Saudi citizens. This is awkward, given the Saudis’ $15-billion deal to purchase LAVs from a Canadian firm; they had said they wouldn’t use these tools of war against their own citizens.
In short, Canada appears to be pretty good at its dealings with unhinged leaders such as Kim Jong Un, and with possibly unbalanced ones, such as Donald Trump. It’s the level-headed despots that seem to trip us up. Let’s work on that.