Canada will revisit its Indo-Pacific strategy keeping economic interests in mind: Foreign minister
Speaking to reporters from Kuala Lumpur where she was attending the Asean summit, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand said, 'This is a time when the global economy is under stress and we need to ensure that our diplomacy is serving domestic interests as well.'
She said that Ottawa's foreign policy in general including that looking at the Indo-Pacific region, will adhere to the values it has historically adhered to but also 'how we can ensure that foreign policy is an extension of domestic interests and particularly domestic economic interests'.
The Indo-Pacific Strategy was released in November 2022, and 'the global strategic environment has shifted significantly' since then, she pointed out.
'We are going to build the Indo-Pacific strategy and we're going to do that in way that serves Canadians,' she noted.
She described as a 'significant step' the bilateral meeting that Prime Minister Mark Carney held with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the margins of the G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, last month, but cautioned that the next steps will be 'taken prudently and in due course' but that 'timeline will be steady, not immediate'.
While Canada is seeking to diversify trade from beyond the United States, given tariff threats from American President Donald Trump, the countries it is reaching out to repair relations with isn't limited to India. Anand also met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Asean summit.
The Indo-Pacific Strategy, when it was released, described India as a 'critical partner'.
'Canada and India have a shared tradition of democracy and pluralism, a common commitment to a rules-based international system and multilateralism, mutual interest in expanding our commercial relationship and extensive and growing people-to-people connections,' it said.
Months later, on September 18, 2023, ties cratered after than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Common that there were 'credible allegations' of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, three months earlier. India called those accusations 'absurd' and 'motivated'.
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