When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives in Laos on Wednesday, he will have spent almost a full day in the air, yet despite spending 24 hours to reach Laos’ capital Vientiane, he won’t even spend 48 hours there.
But senior government officials traveling with the prime minister this week say the time and money spent so Trudeau can attend the annual ASEAN leaders’ summit is an important part of the “long-term strategic bet.” His government has for several years made an effort to raise Canada’s profile in the region.
It is part of the country’s Indo-Pacific strategy that aims to promote rules-based trade and foster the kind of multilateral security relationships that a middle power like Canada must have in order to survive and thrive.
“Canada has to build diplomatic and economic ties as well as in the security space. And that’s what Canada has been doing with its Indo-Pacific strategy,” said Roland Paris, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa who briefly worked as an adviser in Trudeau’s office after the 2015 election. And the quiet one.”
Briefing reporters aboard Trudeau’s Air Force plane, senior government officials acknowledged that Canada, for many years, has not been seen as a reliable partner in Asia, and that its interest in its Pacific neighbors will wax and wane.
Canada may still have a ways to go to improve its reputation in Asia, but the bet is that the Canadian Prime Minister – a G7 leader – will travel to the other side of the world for face-to-face meetings with leaders from countries like Cambodia. The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and other ASEAN members are the clearest way to demonstrate Canada’s commitment to a region with the fastest growing regional economy in the world. Government officials were also quick to point out that trade between Canada and ASEAN has doubled since the Liberals took office in 2015.
“This is one of the fastest growing economic regions in the world. If Canada wants to benefit from that through trade, we need to build relationships,” Paris said. “Having the prime minister present is a very tangible way to do that.”
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Trudeau will become the first Canadian prime minister ever to visit Laos, a relatively poor landlocked country located between Vietnam and Thailand. He will be the first Canadian Prime Minister to attend three ASEAN summits in a row.
“It is really important that we have these talks directly in the region,” said one government official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. The official went on to use the most Canadian metaphor, which is that when it comes to foreign policy, Canada “has to go where the puck goes.”
However, government officials warn that Trudeau’s time in Laos is unlikely to result in groundbreaking trade treaties or massive trade deals. Officials said his work paves the way for future deals.
One official said Canada could no longer “work on a set of relationships with Europe or the Americans.”
This idea is not unique to the Trudeau government. The Harper government also attempted to diversify the focus of Canada’s foreign policy. It has focused, with mixed results, on “hemispheric” relations with South America and Latin America.
Canadian prime ministers will use the typically busy fall season for international leaders’ meetings, and Trudeau’s fall this year is at least as busy as any he’s had as he tries to expand or strengthen Canada’s set of global relations.
Summit season typically begins at the UN’s Leaders Week in late September each year, and this is where Trudeau began his fall journey.
Then, last week, he traveled to Paris to attend a summit of Francophonie leaders. He is in Vientiane until Friday in ASEAN. It will then continue flying west to Germany, where at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, he will participate in a Saturday afternoon meeting of the so-called Ukraine Contact Group, a group of 50 countries formed to coordinate military aid to Ukraine. Ukraine is trying to expel the Russian invaders.
US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also attend the meeting where Ukraine and its allies are expected to address some of the practical issues the country faces in continuing its war, such as issues such as finding enough ammunition and weapons.
We still have to continue on the autumn summit circuit: the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit on the Pacific island of Samoa. the Asia-Pacific Economics Conference (APEC) in Lima, Peru; And the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While Trudeau’s attendance at those last three summits has yet to be confirmed, the Canadian Prime Minister tends to miss those gatherings only if a federal election gets in his way.
While Trudeau can expect the usual Question Period barbs from his Conservative opponents about “flying the plane” around the world — and this week he and his officials will circumnavigate the globe on an RCAF Airbus A330 — the Prime Minister’s travels are very important. The way for a middle power to strengthen its commitment to multilateralism.
This commitment may be more important than ever if Donald Trump wins the US presidency next month. Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Canadian imports and all other imports entering the United States, and may go so far as to end US membership in NATO.
“The world is much more dangerous than it was 10 years ago,” Paris said. “It’s more complicated. We’re seeing more competition in many different areas. And, you know, it’s a world in which Canada has to think very carefully about its national interests.”
David Akin is Global News’ chief political correspondent.
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