Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is headed to two international summits this week to push for expanded trade and closer ties with parts of Asia — goals that are likely to be overshadowed by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Trudeau and International Trade Minister Mary Ng are attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta, Indonesia from September 5 to 6. They’ll be in New Delhi, India from from September 9 to 10 for the G20 summit, with a stopover in Singapore from September 7 to 8 to chase new foreign investment.
Most international summits end with a joint communiqué — outlining objectives and measures agreed upon by all member countries. Last year’s G20, hosted by Indonesia, was able to reach consensus on a number of global issues and even included language on Ukraine.
With the G20 assembly still split over the war in Ukraine and other burning issues, such as climate change, experts don’t hold out a lot of hope for a similar outcome this year.
Trudeau, U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left to right, attend an emergency meeting of leaders at the G20 summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 16, 2022. (Leon Neal/Pool/The Associated Press)
“Getting a joint statement this year at the G20 will be even harder than last time,” said one senior government official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Paul Samson, president of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), said he also doubts the G20 can agree on a communiqué this time.
Samson, who has co-chaired a G20 working group on the global economy for many years, pointed to ministerial summits in recent months that ended with so-called “outcome documents” and summaries outlining each government’s positions on various issues.
“It’s unfortunate because … you lose the multilateral reform [on issues] such as climate change,” he said. “Those kinds of things where there could have been an agreement between all parties, that gets pushed aside because of the disagreement on those other areas.”
This is the first G20 since a recent move spearheaded by China to expand the BRICS — a group made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that sees itself as a counterweight to the G7 within the G20. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join.
While a consensus outcome at the G20 appears unlikely, Canada hopes to make progress at the ASEAN summit toward completing a trade agreement with Indonesia and the region as a whole.
“We are aware of the criticism of Canada as a sometimes friend that sometimes shows up and then disappears,” said the senior government official. “Not anymore.”
The official said that since Canada is now officially a strategic partner of ASEAN, “we will be back every year.”
Getting Southeast Asia’s attention
Canada’s priority going into the ASEAN summit is to make sure Southeast Asia’s leaders see this country as a prime candidate for trade relationships, government officials said. At least one Canadian minister has joked that international leaders don’t wake up thinking of Canada.
“That may be nowhere more true than it is in Southeast Asia, which is very far from Canada geographically,” said Jeff Nankivell, president and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
“These summits are an important occasion to get the attention of leaders in the region.”
Nankivell said Canada is keen on Southeast Asia because of its agri-food export potential — the region is experiencing acute food security problems, made worse by the war in Ukraine — while the region is interested in Canada as a provider of clean tech services and goods.
Trudeau arrives for a signing ceremony with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in Singapore on Nov. 14, 2018. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
After Indonesia, the prime minister is making a quick stop in Singapore for a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to promote investment opportunities in Canada.
“There is no more key global hub for finance and business in that region than Singapore,” said the senior government official.
Driving all of this is Canada’s year-old Indo-Pacific strategy — which is why Canada’s new special envoy to the Indo-Pacific, Ambassador to Japan Ian McKay, will be part of the delegation in both Indonesia and Singapore.
But the G20 in New Delhi, with its complex and tense geopolitics, is likely to eclipse those previous stops.
India in the middle
The host country India, which is both a member of BRICS and a country with strong ties to the West, can be expected to pursue a middle ground and push for the interests of developing countries, especially on climate change and food insecurity.
That will involve pressing developed countries like Canada to finally pony up the $100 billion they promised to help developing countries mitigate the effects of climate change.
Discussions of food insecurity will be trickier since they lead inevitably back to the war in Ukraine — specifically Russia’s refusal to renew the deal that allowed Ukraine to continue exporting grain from its Black Sea port.
Zelenskyy urges ‘G19’ to stand up to Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly used the number 19 in his video address to world leaders at the G20 summit in Bali, urging them to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
And unlike last year’s G20 summit in Bali, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited to appear by video at this one.
With group consensus less likely, one-on-one meetings between countries become more important. Canada is seeking bilateral meetings with South Korea and Japan, two countries that could turn to Canada as a reliable supplier of clean tech. Australia is also on Canada’s list of priority countries for talks on the G20 sidelines.
Prime Minister Trudeau likely will have a “moment” at the G20 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government official said — either through a formal bilateral meeting or a so-called “pull aside.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, meets Trudeau at the opening ceremony of the COP26 UN Climate Summit, in Glasgow on Nov. 1, 2021. (Alberto Pezzali/The Associated Press)
Relations between the two nations have declined over the past year, partly due to Trudeau’s vocal support for protesting farmers in India and India’s stated concerns about people in Canada sympathetic to the Sikh separatist movement.
But India — the most populous country in the world and the fastest-growing economy in the G20 — is an important ally and partner to have. Canada has been in talks with India on negotiating a limited free trade deal. Canada requested a pause in those talks within the past month. Officials have said only that they want to take stock of where things stand in the trade talks.
And experts say Trudeau is likely keen to see this visit go better than his last trip to India in 2018 — when he was pilloried for his choice of outfits and his wife was photographed beside a convicted Sikh extremist.
The impact of this particular G20 summit could be being undermined by the expectation that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend. Premier Li Qiang is likely to attend in his place.
Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t attending either; he faces a warrant for his arrest from the International Criminal Court at the Hague, which accuses him of overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend instead, as he did in 2022.
“The fact that we’re all getting together is a reminder that we think this global forum is useful,” said the senior government official.
“For all of us to take ourselves out of regional rivalries and do what is good for all of us — that is the potential of the G20.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
