Prime Minister Mark Carney’s vision of middle powers working with less traditional partners outside the superpower club is already taking shape on the United Nations, says Canada’s ambassador.
“We have now arrange numerous different sorts of relationships that work for specific issues,” said David Lametti, Canada’s ambassador to the UN. “And that’s precisely the style through which I feel Prime Minister Carney has envisaged this, for areas outside of the UN.”
Carney attracted global attention this January with a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos urging middle powers to band together to advance their interests and avoid being subjugated by superpowers.
The prime minister also has sought to shift Canadian foreign policy from one depending on traditional allies to a brand new vision of what he has called “variable geometry.” He described that approach last November as “dynamic, overlapping, pragmatic coalitions, built around shared interests, and infrequently shared values, moderately than shared institutions.”
Carney gave the instance of tackling climate change through trade rules set by the European Union, technology standards drafted by China and India, and nature-based solutions supplied by Brazil.
“We’ve been practising variable geometry on the UN probably for the reason that starting,” said Lametti.
Lametti said Canada has long sought to work on the UN with countries representing various regions and interests to hunt consensus on vital issues.
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“On the UN, it happens on a regular basis,” he said.
Canada’s foreign policy tends to be framed around the concept that a world rules-based order makes it easier for smaller countries to defend themselves and trade with others.
Lametti said a serious a part of his job is overseeing what he calls “the center powers agenda” of like-minded countries working to preserve international law and resolve crises.
He pointed to a UN group of countries co-ordinating efforts to tackle Haiti’s gang crisis. The group is co-led by Ottawa and Washington but in addition includes Central American governments threatened by uncontrolled migration and smuggling.
There’s a bloc of UN nations advocating for human rights that calls itself the Mountains Group; member states Canada, Australia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Recent Zealand, Norway and Switzerland all have large mountain ranges. Lametti said the work of the Mountains Group has grow to be more distinguished as Washington has stepped back from championing human rights on the UN.
Lametti said he has worked along with his counterparts from Australia and Recent Zealand on matters starting from the involvement of girls in conflict and peacekeeping to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“It’s something that enables us to pool work. We’re like-minded countries, we share values and we will work more efficiently,” he said.
One other example Lametti cited is the JUSCANZ group — pronounced “juice cans” — which seeks to co-ordinate how multiple countries, including Canada, Japan, the U.S., Australia, Recent Zealand, Turkey and South Korea, share information on policies affecting developed countries outside the European Union.
Lametti said Canada is attempting to advance issues “which can be increasingly vital to the prime minister and the direction of presidency” through these groups — issues starting from the protected adoption of artificial intelligence to the protection of civilians in conflict zones.
He said Carney’s work to link the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trading bloc with the European Union is an example of efforts outside the UN to preserve rules-based trade. The move comes amid economic coercion by each the U.S. and China.
At a virtual panel held Monday by the NATO Association of Canada, Lametti also said “re-establishing” good relations with China and India is an important Canadian interest.
“I don’t think we’re abandoning our traditional alliances a lot as we’re adding to them,” he said. “All of this is a component of, I’d say, constructing onto relationships that we previously had.”
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