Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy | A message to Beijing

In editorial meeting with The PressMinister Mélanie Joly explains that Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy was built with China in mind.

(Ottawa) Some 2.2 billion over five years, half of which will be used to compete with China’s “new silk roads” and to “send a message” to Beijing with an increased military presence in the region: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, this Sunday in Vancouver, cuts down the maps of Canada for the Indo-Pacific region.

When she received the first draft of the strategy in the spring, China was not included. So Canada’s chief diplomat sent her officials back to the drawing board. “I was not satisfied; I said, “Let’s start again.” The approach to China was not the one we present today,” she explains.

“Most of our allies’ Indo-Pacific strategies don’t include China. Me, I decided to do that in a strategy, because we cannot talk about the Indo-Pacific without talking about China, ”she continues.

The least we can say is that the Chinese giant is omnipresent in the final version of the ten-year plan that Minister Joly discussed in an editorial meeting with The Press.

The word China appears 56 times in the 30-page document, alongside terms such as “arrogance”, “disruptive” and “coercion”.

“There is a fundamental problem with the fact that China, currently, does not respect international standards and tries to modify or interpret them for its own benefit”, she insists, saying that she mentioned the “framework of re-engagement” of Canada in its recent exchanges with its Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

“He doesn’t necessarily agree, but I told him that at least it’s transparent,” she says. Because Canada has national interests to defend, and “we will not let China lecture us,” the minister decides. At the same time, “we are going to use diplomacy, as we do to [l’organisation] of COP15”, she illustrates.

Infrastructure and army

Ottawa will inject money — $750 million — to fund infrastructure projects and provide “alternative options for developing economies,” the government’s plan reads. Here again, Beijing is implicit: the investment is part of a G7 program created in response to the “Belt and Road Initiative”.

“This is exactly what the region needs. Indonesia, for example, needs retaining walls to deal with rising sea levels. [les États] do not have access to capital. When they don’t have access to it, they go to other countries, and there, there are conditions that come with it and that are problematic,” argues the minister.

Canada will also flex muscle. A Canadian frigate will eventually join the two already patrolling the waters of the region, including those of the Taiwan Strait and the China Seas, and military attaches and intelligence forces will be added to diplomatic networks. Cost: nearly 500 million.

“It is sure that it is a message that we send”, agrees M^me Joly speaking of this part of the strategy.

A demonstration of the fact that Western countries remain on the lookout for the fate of Taiwan – “China is watching what we are doing with Ukraine and sees how united we are” – and an illustration of the importance in the eyes of the Canada “to protect our neighborhood,” she said.

A necessary diversification

Although he gave up the idea he cherished when he came to power of negotiating a free trade agreement with China, as confirmed by the minister, the Trudeau government does not go so far as to advise the private sector not to remove his balls.

“My job is to explain what the risk is. I say it, there is a geopolitical risk in doing business in China. Afterwards, it is up to them to make their decisions. We help them mitigate the risks. How ? Through a strategy of diversification,” says the Minister.

Thus, Canada, which is already a signatory to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, wants to add to its string of trade agreements pacts with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Indonesia and India.

“I think we have a good relationship with India… which still needs to be worked on,” said the minister when the lukewarm relationship between New Delhi and Ottawa was mentioned, that Justin Trudeau’s official visit to 2018 had failed to fix.

India, which will hold the reins of the G20 next year, is essential in the Indo-Pacific strategy, especially since it is called to become the most populous nation on the planet by 2030.

In Mélanie Joly’s turn, the North Pacific is just as important: “We should be as close to Japan and South Korea as to Germany, France or Great Britain. They are strong democracies with common values. »

The document officially unveiled by the Minister this Sunday has been awaited for quite some time by the opposition parties in Ottawa and by many specialists in foreign affairs.