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Canada unveils foreign policy overhaul
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-20 09:17
Canada promised Tuesday to increase foreign aid, double its overseas defense
capabilities in five years and expand security links with the United States "to
make a real difference" in preventing conflicts.
Prime Minister Paul Martin said the policy overhaul — the first in 10 years —
reflects Canada's global responsibilities.
Trade Minister Jim Peterson, left, and Foreign
Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew look over towards Defense Minister Bill
Graham upon their arrival for a news conference in Ottawa, Tuesday April
19, 2005 to announce Canada's international policy
statement.[AP] | "We want to make a real
difference in halting and preventing conflict and improving human welfare around
the world," Martin said. "The people of our country have long understood that,
as a proud citizen of the world, Canada has global responsibilities."
The blueprint calls on Canada to increase foreign aid 8 percent annually over
the next four years. Canada currently spends $2.9 billion annually in foreign
aid.
The policy review said Ottawa also intends to double its diplomatic
representatives around the world in the next five years and create a task force
to monitor the world's potential crisis spots.
The defense portion calls for doubling the military's deployment capability
in five years and $10.3 billion in new military spending, as well as adding
5,000 more new full-time soldiers and creating a new rapid-response force and
buying new ships, aircraft and vehicles.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin speaks on
Canada's role in the world in Gatineau, Quebec, April 18,
2005.[Reuters] | It also pledged to strengthen defense cooperation with the United States,
noting Ottawa would create a new command center, the Integrated Threat
Assessment Center, to gather and distribute intelligence on potential threats to
the continent. It would also establish overseas task forces and a special
commando unit.
Under the plan, the navy and the air force would work closely with Washington
in conducting joint patrols and improving early warning systems to confront
terrorists, and would deliver humanitarian and reconstruction relief in the
event of an attack.
The State Department said it would have no comment on the policy overhaul on
Tuesday.
Steven Staples, a defense analyst with the Polaris Institute in Ottawa, said
Canada appeared to be giving up its traditional role as peacekeeper for U.N.-led
operations, adopting the Washington mode of offensive action.
"The whole notion of transformation of the military, it's a buzzword in the
Pentagon for creating a very aggressive, fast-moving, easily deployed,
independent military that doesn't rely on coalition forces," Staples said.
The opposition Conservative Party pounced on the policy review, calling it
"old words for an old-world order," and claiming the timing of its release was
meant to improve the chances of Martin's Liberal Party in upcoming elections.
The Conservatives intend to put forward a no-confidence vote on the
administration, which is mired in a spending scandal.
Under the plan, if the minority Liberals remain in power, Ottawa intends to
focus aid on 25 countries where it believes it can have the greatest impact. The
countries, most of which are in Africa, include Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Sri
Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
It will simultaneously scale back aid to 155 countries, prompting cries by
the opposition that Ottawa was abandoning some of the world's poorest nations,
such as Haiti and Sudan.
"We are not abandoning anyone," said Aileen Carroll, minister of
international cooperation. "All programs and all contracts will be brought to
completion, we will not have abrupt exits."
Carroll also said Canada will continue to provide peacekeeping troops and
other aid for "failed or failing states" such as Haiti, Afghanistan and Somalia.
The revamped trade portion of the policy calls for accelerated talks with
China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, the Americas and European Union.
Minister of Trade Jim Peterson noted that while Canada accounts for nearly 4
percent of world trade, it only represents 1.3 percent of China's trade.
"Clearly we have some work to do," he said.
The opposition was incensed, however, that the document did not propose new
strategies to resolve the softwood lumber dispute that has cost the Canadian
lumber industry more than $3.2 billion in U.S.-imposed penalties.
It also did not address the lingering mad cow dispute, which forced the
closure of the U.S. border to Canadian beef nearly two years ago and has taken
some $4.5 billion from cattle ranchers.
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