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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. KILGOUR - ADDRESS AT THE OCTOBER MEETING OFTHE DIPLOMATIC PRESS ATTACHÉ NETWORKNATIONAL PRESS CLUB'CANADIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN AN EVER-SHRINKING WORLD' - OTTAWA, ONTARIO</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 97/41 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE DAVID KILGOUR SECRETARY OF STATE (LATIN AMERICA AND AFRICA) AT THE OCTOBER MEETING OF THE DIPLOMATIC PRESS ATTACHÉ NETWORK NATIONAL PRESS CLUB "CANADIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN AN EVER-SHRINKING WORLD" OTTAWA, Ontario October 15, 1997 This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: There are pressures on Canadians to look at the world through parochial eyes. When you are located as close as we are to the United States -- the country the rest of the world tends to focus on, given its political and economic might and its ubiquitous entertainment industry -- it is sometimes difficult to look beyond and realize that there is a lot more out there. Just past Texas and a tad beyond Hawaii . . . Parochial Doesn't Work Here The truth is that Canadians cannot afford to be parochial. It is in our interests to look outward as it is in the interests of those who are less prosperous. Much of our personal security, and our national security, depends upon what happens elsewhere. A great deal of our economic well-being depends upon what happens elsewhere -- evidently no other nation in the world depends more on foreign trade to create jobs and prosperity. Approximately 40 per cent of our GDP [gross domestic product] today consists of exports of goods and services -- that's millions of Canadian jobs. Think about a country that features some of the most remote and lightly populated land in the world. Then think of some of those pristine places rapidly turning into repositories for pollutants -- some of which have been spewed into the air by us and some by others. Think about a country within the confines of a world with immense military, economic and population pressures. Can that country afford to stick its head in the sand and pretend that all those massive migratory pressures are never going to show up on our doorstep? Canada's Foreign Policy I am speaking, of course, of Canada. And I am saying that foreign policy is of real concern to Canadians. As you know, Canada's foreign policy is based on the three pillars of national prosperity, national security, and the projection abroad of our values and culture. I am proud to be associated with it. If you look behind this convention, that UN vote, this protocol, and that initiative, I think you will find a rather firm set of Canadian values that serve us well at home and abroad. They are a mix of idealism and practicality, based on the concept that you aren't likely to achieve practical results if there isn't some degree of idealism to your approach. Idealism is usually caught up in some kind of quest to make things better for people. What Can Canadians Contribute? My job is to promote Canadian interests generally in the areas for which I am responsible -- Latin America and Africa. Trade has become an ever-growing focus at the department, as you might expect with the world economy opening up so much over the past decade. It goes without saying that we at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade have an obligation to do everything we can to enhance the opportunities for Canadian-based entrepreneurs to operate abroad, and to attract investment to Canada that will create jobs here. Only last weekend, I met a Brazilian now landed in Canada who exports Canadian made anti-theft devices to 15 car dealers in Rio. A friend in southeast Edmonton publishes books there, which he sells on the Internet to Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans. But what else can we do to help create the kind of world that is likely to value the kind of society that Canadians have put together -- rather than threaten it? An Independent Voice Since 1989, we have moved from a bipolar world to one in which one superpower dominates the international scene. By necessity -- but also through shared values -- the United States is to many Canadians our best international friend. Most Canadians appreciate the role which the United States plays in intervening in difficult situations around the world. And we all celebrate the end of the Cold War, which fuelled so many conflicts in so many places between 1945 and 1989. The current unipolar world obviously doesn't come problem free. If medium- and small-sized states do nothing more than acquiesce to one country's leadership, then whatever brand of thinking prevails in that country at any given time will also prevail internationally. That isn't humanity's way, and it certainly isn't the American way. We can't abdicate our responsibilities, and it isn't in any Canadian interest that we do so. Thankfully, we have not. We have worked hard in many forums -- including the G-7 -- to make our influence felt. We work in partnership with the United States on most important issues because the two countries share a lot of values. But we Canadians must speak up -- as we have in the past -- when we have something different to say. That is the very essence of democracy. And democracy is what we are counting on to help bring self-determination and relative prosperity to billions of people around the world. Appointment to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade If I may enter a personal note here, the two passions to which I have just referred -- a determination to maintain an independent voice, but a complementary one to play a role as part of a team that can do things to make the world a better place -- these are two things that have sustained me in political life. There have been times when I stood alone. I had to; because I believed in what I was saying; and wasn't about to swallow convictions. Now I am a proud member of the Government of Canada -- part of a great team. My appointment by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa was a great honour. I think it shows that people who aren't always yes men -- or yes women -- can command respect on both the national and the international scene, and that is what Canada aspires to. Latin America and Africa Latin American, Caribbean and African countries have made it clear to us that it is important to have us around, often because Canada doesn't always feel compelled to say yes. Africa's emergence as a stable, prosperous continent is important to every other continent in the world. The Canadian bond with Africa has continued to build since the days of John Diefenbaker and Mike Pearson. Both leaders saw what Africa means to the world and is capable of contributing. I am an Africa optimist. The end of apartheid in South Africa and the spread of democracy in many other African countries gives the world increasing hope that Africa's potential will be realized. We Canadians must continue to lend assistance. As for Latin America, I can remember when it was a peripheral, far-away place for most Canadians. How things have changed! Canada and Latin America have recognized each other's political and economic importance within the hemisphere. In the 1990s, Canada has clearly become, finally, a nation of the Americas. The other big change is democratization. Suddenly the whole western hemisphere is home. Canada's decision to occupy its long-vacant chair at the Organization of American States [OAS] and our new free trade agreement with Chile are two indicators that this is going to be an increasingly meaningful relationship in the 21st century. Through the OAS, the Summit of the Americas, the NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], and the FTAA [Free Trade Area of the Americas] process, Latin American and the Caribbean are beginning to take their rightful place in the Canadian public eye. Prime Minister Chrétien and Foreign Affairs Minister Axworthy have made it clear through recent visits that they consider Central and Latin American a Canadian priority. Much can be gained by better bonding the northern and southern extremities of this hemisphere. There is strength in regional unity, and that strength should be as balanced as we can make it in the circumstances. Between January 11 and 23, Prime Minister Chrétien, along with provincial and territorial leaders, will lead a Team Canada mission to Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Team Canada missions are an important component of Canada's international business development efforts. Exports are vital to the Canadian economy; every $1 billion in exports creates or sustains 11 000 jobs in Canada. The mission to Latin America will send a strong signal to prospective partners in the region that Canada is committed to doing business with them. A Recent Visit to Chile and Bolivia Recently, I had an opportunity to see just how useful a hemispheric role Canadians are capable of playing. When I visited Santiago -- the capital of a country that in a very short time has become an important trading partner for Canada -- I was presented with clear evidence of how a very good business deal for Canadians can dovetail with improved living conditions for all Chileans. Smog is a huge concern in Santiago and the problem is heightening because of the high terrain surrounding the city. The week before my visit to Chile, the great tenor Pavarotti had called off a concert because vocal chords don't respond well to heavy levels of pollution. I swallowed my share of smog, and I listened to local health authorities express their fears about the long- and short-term health dangers it presents to Chileans. I also got a chance to attend the opening of the GasAndes Project headed by Nova Corp., and to rejoice in the fact that Canadian technology, Canadian management expertise, and Canadian governmental assistance is going to help make things better -- perhaps to the point that Pavarotti will eventually show up. I hope he wears a Canadian flag crossed with a Chilean flag on his T-shirt when he sings. I also visited Bolivia. The bad news is that I saw a people that for too long have suffered from endemic poverty. The good news is that I was able to witness the beginning of a turnaround that is creating major investor interest, and that is also beginning to provide tools -- such as microcredit and a government pension fund -- to give all Bolivians a chance to make something more of their lives. Bolivians, of course, are creating their own destiny, but Canada is going to play at least something of a supportive role in that turnaround. Visit to Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya Recently, I have visited Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya and have seen for myself that Africa is changing and our stereotypes are obsolete. In Kampala, I learned that fully 2000 companies have located operations in Uganda in recent years. Similarly, in Rwanda, close observers say that there has been real economic progress for some -- certainly not all -- since the catastrophe of 1994, and that the government in office is genuinely seeking reconciliation among its constituent communities. In Kenya, despite large problems there appears to have been a national stepping back from the abyss recently. Our delegation arrived shortly after a multi-party committee of Members of Parliament had agreed on a comprehensive package of reforms, which now appears to be on its way to enactment in full before the election, which must be held in this calendar year. In short, there is a basis for optimism in all three nations. Those are positive stories. Canada's relations with those countries have helped bring about positive changes. I would argue that Canada's foreign policy in the 1990s has not only been for the most part intelligent. It is has often been exciting, particularly in recent years. Landmines Let's look at Canada's campaign to ban anti-personnel landmines. It is perhaps the most obvious example of this country taking a lead on an issue that could have been ignored because: (a) it wasn't popular in military circles; and (b) it does not personally concern many important people around the world. Important people don't spend a lot of time walking through fields and down bush paths that are likely to explode under them at any given moment. Millions of poor civilians do. It is an important issue. It tells ordinary people that they matter. There are an estimated one hundred million land mines lurking around the world, waiting to blow children to bits -- for no other reason than that these kids took one false step on land that should sustain them. So, as you know, Canada has played a significant role in the grass-roots activism that should lead us -- must lead us -- to a meaningful international accord on the banning of anti-personnel mines. In early December, more than 90 countries are expected to sign a treaty toward this end in Ottawa, as one more step in what has become to be known as the "Ottawa Process." Canadians should be proud. The United States hasn't come on board yet. This is a shame -- particularly given the role that the U.S.-based Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Land Mines has played in driving this issue since 1992. Again, this is why independent voices are so important on the current international scene. Human Security The fight to obliterate anti-personnel landmines is just one component of Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy's commitment to the concept of sustainable human security, which, as most of you know, he has twice advanced in formal presentations to the United Nations General Assembly. The concept recognizes that the ugly face of war has changed. It recognizes that, while people around the world are less often victims of nation-to-nation combat, they are increasingly coming under other types of more complicated -- but equally-lethal -- assaults. Canada's decision to play a major part in defeating Naziism during the Second World War involved a clear-cut decision to declare war and send troops. In the 1990s, waging war against tyranny and injustice can be more complicated. Think of these threats to world security and well-being: the needs of more than a billion people living in poverty; clean water shortages, the leading cause of death in the developing world; attacks on the human rights of individuals and groups within their own societies; terrorism and international crime; denigration of the lives and livelihoods of people everywhere through depletion or pollution of natural resources. These are ominous and ever-encroaching enemies. They don't all fit into the old categories deemed to threaten world order. We need to find ways to combat them. We can't just keep cranking up the fire trucks every time the flames appear. We need to find ways of pre-empting these problems. That is why Canada wants the United Nations and other international agencies to try to come to grips with the concept of sustainable human security. We are proud of our role as international peacekeepers, but we need to start developing new tools as well, to respond to new challenges. Human Rights There may have been a time when the entire populations of countries could be blindfolded to the benefits of living freely, but those days are disappearing. Communications are too pervasive. People don't want to live in national prisons, and sooner or later they are going to find ways of breaking free. Where Canada has made a niche for itself in the area of human rights is in supporting change from within. This approach is evolutionary, not coercive. Even if we wanted to force change, we have to face the fact that Canada simply does not have the economic leverage or the international clout to do so. We can, however, work from within to support NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and develop a space in which civil society can grow. Support for human rights improvements can take different avenues. In countries that are prepared to engage with us on even a limited scale, such as Cuba, we will work for evolutionary change. For regimes that are unwilling to enter into any sort of dialogue or exchange whatsoever, such as Burma or Nigeria, we work for broader international action to press those regimes to change their ways. Next year we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Canada will do its utmost during the year to convince governments everywhere that the suppression of human rights can only lead to the kind of bitterness that creates political uprisings. Canada will be sponsoring a broad range of activities during the year, including a conference on the use of the Internet on behalf of human rights, development of a prototype annual report on the state of human rights worldwide, and an NGO conference that will analyze and evaluate the impact of the 1993 Vienna Declaration. We aren't perfect. We even have work to do in our own backyard on issues of the environment and human rights -- issues that are so important to us internationally. But while we are working on our own problems, we have to be working on the world's problems too. Because, when the circle is closed, they are our problems too. Let me give the final word to Octavio Paz, the Mexican diplomat and poet. In his reflections on contemporary history, One Earth, Four or Five Worlds, Paz notes that all great nations have prudence, which he defines as wisdom and integrity, boldness and moderation, discernment and persistence in undertakings. The aim of our country both domestically and internationally should be this notion of prudence. Thank you. </body> </html>

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