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Canada

Prime Minister Trudeau arrives in Cambodia for ASEAN summit

Phnom Penh, Cambodia –

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has landed in Cambodia for a summit aimed at deepening economic ties with Southeast Asia, a region where Canada’s involvement has been sporadic.

Prime Minister Trudeau is in Phnom Penh for the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a bloc of 10 countries containing the world’s fastest growing economies.

His first day will include commemorative events to mark Canada’s 45-year relationship with ASEAN, as well as the group negotiating a free trade agreement with Canada.

The visit comes at a time when Canada seeks to forge closer ties with Asian nations and find an alternative to China’s growing assertiveness. Her ASEAN as a bloc has already become Canada’s sixth largest trading partner.

The majority of ASEAN’s population is under the age of 30, fueled by a growing middle class in countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, and cheap labor as companies move jobs from China to places such as Vietnam and the Philippines.

As for Cambodia, Canada is one of its largest trading partners, with bilateral trade reaching $1.82 billion last year. About 98% of that was related to goods such as clothing and footwear that Cambodia sold to Canada, while Canadian goods such as auto parts and artificial fur were just her $38.5 million.

Despite a limited diplomatic presence, trade between the two countries has soared. In 2009, the Harper administration closed the Canadian Embassy in Phnom Penh and downgraded it to a consulate. At the time, Ottawa cited “seriously considering Canada’s current diplomatic representation abroad”, but many cited a move toward budget cuts.

Wayne Farmer, chairman of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council, said Ottawa is just one example of lagging behind the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and France in establishing strong trade ties with the region.

“It’s the furthest region in the world from Canada. Farther than Africa, farther than North Asia, farther than Europe. It’s not all that surprising that we’re latecomers,” Farmer said.

“But in today’s world of communications and transportation, that’s no excuse either.”

Farmer said Canada had a strong presence in ASEAN countries decades ago as a major aid partner during the post-colonial era of the 1960s.

Canada is still famous in the region for playing a leading role in the global effort to clear landmines in the 1990s.

Yet just as some countries crossed the threshold of being considered developed and began to become economic heavyweights, Canada withdrew from the region.

“We had a reputation as Fairweather’s friends, going in and out of the market and doing weird things,” said Farmer, who is based in Singapore.

“It would have been a natural progression to move from development assistance to business development.”

Still, the Canadian private sector has a growing presence in the region, with Canadian pension funds investing across the region. Insurance companies such as Manulife and Sun Life are common names in her ASEAN countries such as the Philippines. One of Cambodia’s largest banks, ABA, is owned by the National Bank based in Montreal.

Farmer claims Ottawa has made those relationships difficult to forge.Canada required visas for business travelers from ASEAN countries and upheld some of the strictest COVID-19 travel rules .

Immigration backlogs have delayed the issuance of student visas, and some were halfway through their degrees in Canada. Farmer says Ottawa risks losing students to places like Australia.

Jeffrey Reeves, head of research at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, said the West has also done little, including wielding patents, to allow developing countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines. said it had damaged its reputation.

“China provided vaccines to much of Asia, but the western world hoarded supplies and prevented technology transfers in overseas production,” he said at a Nov. 1 panel.

“Things like that are honestly not overlooked and easily forgotten.”

Reeves added that Canada’s constant rhetoric about the rules-based international order does not resonate in Southeast Asia, where polls suggest many hold a favorable view of China and Russia.

“These priorities are not only inconsistent with each other, they may actually be at odds,” he said, noting that Canada, while sought for its goods, has “undesired interference” in geopolitics. ” he argued not.

Stephanie Martell, a professor of international relations at Queen’s University and a leading ASEAN expert, said Canada could instead play a role in building consensus on various issues.

She said Canada can build ties with Southeast Asian nations by focusing on their individual trajectories rather than painting them under the thumb of China or the United States.

Martell says it comes down to “recognizing and respecting the fact that many of these countries do not fit neatly into the categories of democracy and authoritarianism.”

Trudeau, for example, is scheduled to meet Saturday with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled since 1985.

The country is plagued by corruption, restrictions on press freedom, and human trafficking. China is helping upgrade Cambodia’s main naval base, which the US sees as a threat to regional stability.

The ASEAN bloc is also addressing the alarming human rights situation in Myanmar, one of 10 member states where turmoil has reigned since the February 2021 coup by the Myanmar military.

The bloc isolated the country’s leadership but failed to reach consensus on Friday on how to implement a peace plan developed months earlier.


This report by the Canadian Press was first published on November 12, 2022.

Prime Minister Trudeau arrives in Cambodia for ASEAN summit

Source link Prime Minister Trudeau arrives in Cambodia for ASEAN summit

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