When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lands in Laos on Wednesday, he will have spent almost a full day in the air, and yet, despite taking 24 hours to reach the Laotian capital, Vientiane, he won’t even spend 48 hours there.
But senior government officials who traveled with the prime minister this week say the time and money spent so Trudeau can attend the annual summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders is an important part of a “ long-term strategic commitment.” his government did several years ago to raise Canada’s profile in the region.
It is part of the country’s Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at boosting rules-based trade and improving the kind of multilateral security relations that a middle power like Canada must have to survive and prosper.
“Canada has to build relations both diplomatically and economically and also in the area of security. And that’s what Canada has been doing through its Indo-Pacific strategy,” said Roland Paris, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa who briefly served as an adviser in Trudeau’s office after the 2015 election. .
In a briefing to reporters on Trudeau’s air force plane, senior government officials acknowledged that, for many years, Canada was not seen as a reliable partner in Asia, and that its interest in its Pacific neighbors would increase. and would decrease.
Canada may still have a ways to go to improve its reputation in Asia, but the bet is that the Canadian prime minister, a G7 leader, will travel to the other side of the world to meet face-to-face with leaders of countries like Cambodia. , the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and other ASEAN members is the clearest way to show Canada’s commitment to a region that happens to have the fastest-growing regional economy in the world. Government officials were also quick to point out that trade between Canada and ASEAN has doubled since the Liberals took power in 2015.
“This is one of the fastest growing economic areas in the world. And if Canada wants to benefit from that through trade, we need to build relationships,” Paris said. “The presence of the prime minister is a very concrete way to do it.”
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Trudeau will become the first Canadian prime minister to visit Laos, a relatively poor landlocked nation between Vietnam and Thailand. And he will be the first Canadian prime minister to attend three ASEAN summits in a row.
“It’s really important that we have those conversations directly in the region,” said one of the government officials who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. The official went on to use the most Canadian of metaphors: that when it comes to foreign policy, Canada “has to go where the puck goes.”
That said, government officials warn that Trudeau’s stay in Laos is unlikely to produce groundbreaking trade deals or blockbuster trade deals. Their work, officials said, lays the groundwork for future agreements.
Canada can no longer simply “operate on a set of relationships with Europe or the United States,” one official said.
That idea is not unique to the Trudeau government. The Harper government also attempted to diversify Canada’s foreign policy approach. It focused, with mixed results, on “hemispheric” relations with South America and Latin America.
Canadian prime ministers will take advantage of what is typically a busy fall season for international leaders’ meetings, and Trudeau’s fall this year is at least as busy as any year he’s had as he tries to expand or strengthen the suite of global relationships. from Canada.
“Summit season” typically begins at the United Nations “leaders week” in late September each year and that is where Trudeau began his fall trip.
Then, last week, he flew to Paris to attend the Francophonie leaders’ summit. He is in Vientiane until Friday in ASEAN. Then he continues flying west to Germany, where, at the US air force base in Ramstein, he will participate in a Saturday afternoon meeting of the so-called Ukrainian Contact Group, a group of about 50 countries created to coordinate the military aid to Ukraine as it attempts to dislodge its Russian invader.
US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy will also be at the meeting where Ukraine and its allies are expected to address some of the practical issues the country has in carrying out its war, issues such as Find enough ammunition and weapons.
Still to go on the autumn summit circuit: the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in the Pacific island nation of Samoa; the Asia Pacific Economies Conference (APEC) in Lima, Peru; and the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While Trudeau’s attendance at those last three summits has yet to be confirmed, a Canadian prime minister tends to miss those meetings only if a federal election intervenes.
And while Trudeau can expect the usual criticism from his conservative opponents about jet-setting around the world (and this week he and his officials will literally circumnavigate the globe in an RCAF Airbus A330 plane), the Prime Minister’s travels minister are an important path for a middle power to promote its commitment to multilateralism.
That commitment may be more important than ever if Donald Trump wins the US presidency next month. Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Canadian and all other imports entering the United States and could even go so far as to end American membership in NATO.
“The world is much more dangerous than it was 10 years ago,” Paris said. “It’s much more complicated. We’re seeing a lot more competition in a lot of different areas. And, you know, it’s actually a world where Canada has to think very carefully about its national interests.
David Akin is Global News’ chief political correspondent.
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