
Français		Home		Contact Us		Help		Search		canada.gc.ca		Canada International

Home > Media Room

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

Canadian Offices Abroad

Services for Canadian Travellers

Services for Business

Canada in the World

About the Department

SPEECHES

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips

<html> <head> <meta name="generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 10"> <meta http-equiv="content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <style> p { margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1px } body { font-family: "Arial", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal } </style> </head> <body> October 12, 2005 TORONTO, Ontario 2005/34 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE PIERRE PETTIGREW, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TO THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (CIIA) “COHERENCE AND COMMITMENT: IMPLEMENTING THE NEW INTERNATIONAL POLICY STATEMENT” In December 2003, the new government of Prime Minister Paul Martin launched the most extensive review of Canadian foreign policy ever undertaken in this country. Almost 18 months later, after extensive external consultation and much internal debate, we tabled the International Policy Statement, or IPS, titled A Role of Pride and Influence in the World. The IPS articulates a comprehensive action plan for transforming Canadian diplomacy to better serve Canada and Canadians. The Statement presents a vision for Canada’s global engagement—one firmly rooted in our North American neighbourhood and equipped for a rapidly changing and less predictable world. As our first comprehensive, integrated international policy framework, the IPS was designed to ensure that our foreign, defence, trade and development policies form the basis of a single, coherent and effective international strategy for Canada. The Statement is indicative of the Government of Canada’s commitment to reinvest in Canada’s role in the world. Budget 2005 committed significant new levels of funding to our international role, earmarking almost $17 billion in additional funding over a five-year period to meet our global responsibilities and raise Canada’s international profile. These funds will be directed toward strengthening the effectiveness and agility of our diplomatic presence abroad, bolstering our national defence, doubling our international assistance, and building stronger international economic relationships. The exercise was an enormous undertaking, and we are very pleased that the responses, both within Canada and abroad, have been so positive. The central elements of the Statement have been well received, including:   •         the balance it strikes in our relations within North America and with the rest of the world; and •         its focus on strengthening Canada’s international presence, and its commitment to rebuilding our capacity to act in a more volatile world. While a few armchair critics took issue with the length of time it took to complete the consultations, undertake the review, develop the new strategy and draft the Statement, what is more important is the result. On this, I am confident we got a lot of things right. Thanks to all this work, we are now engaged in the business of implementing policies to foster and promote Canadian interests for years to come. I want to turn now to some of the key principles and considerations that guided the IPS review process. First, the IPS looked at which states and regions are wielding influence. The United States, of course, remains the pre-eminent power, although we cannot take for granted how it chooses to exercise its power. It is essential to Canada that the U.S. remain our closest friend and ally. We need to work at more effectively managing our bilateral relationship and collaborate with the U.S. on global and regional issues when our values and interests coincide, as they usually do. However, the IPS also recognizes that the U.S. is changing. Its population and political influence are moving south and west. These are regions less familiar to Canada and also less familiar with Canada. At the same time, the U.S. population is increasingly from elsewhere in the hemisphere; for example, 25 million Americans are of Mexican origin. The Statement therefore calls on Canada to examine new approaches to a changing North America, including ways to foster a better understanding among our NAFTA partners. It also calls on us to look at how North America relates to other regions of the world, including the European Union and East Asia. The IPS highlights that we are confronting a more competitive, less predictable world. Aside from our traditional competitors and allies, there are new powers in the world. While China and India are the most noticeable, Brazil and Russia are becoming more important, economically and politically. Canada needs to enhance relationships with them to better reflect our growing interests. The expansion of the European Union and the impressive efforts to deepen its foreign policy integration are, in part, explicitly aimed at maintaining European influence in the world because the traditional powers there can no longer do it on their own. Although we don’t yet know how all this will work out, we do know that the power groupings in 10 years’ time will look quite different from the way they look today. There is also another major current gathering force in the world. Several countries—especially those from the South, but also parts of Europe—have reached new levels of affluence and influence that make them ideal partners for Canada. We refer to them as “pathfinders” in the Statement because of their potential to break new ground, regionally and globally, on issues such as UN reform, non-proliferation, and moving forward on implementing the development goals in the Monterrey Consensus. The IPS is not, however, primarily about countries. In a globalizing world, many of the most powerful forces are not exerted by countries at all, but by non-state trends playing out horizontally across national borders and vertically within the structures of societies. That is why the second major consideration of the IPS is that the cross-cutting global issues that matter more and more to Canadians’ daily lives must become a main focus of our international policy. As the IPS lays out, the challenge for the state is to effectively confront these non-state issues. Keeping Canadians secure is the Government’s responsibility and therefore our first priority. But doing so is more complex than before, when security was mainly about protecting Canada from other organized states. Today’s threats do not necessarily come from functioning states, but from terrorists, from organized crime, or from the chaos bred in fragile or failing states. And we must add to this dangerous cocktail the mounting threats from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the worsening effects of rapid climate change, and the devastation wrought by natural disasters. I am deeply saddened by the tremendous damage and loss of life that last Saturday’s earthquake has brought to South Asia, and particularly Pakistan. I spoke with Pakistani Foreign Minister [Khurshid] Kasuri on Sunday morning, offering Canada’s sincere condolences to the people of the region and expressing our commitment to help. Through a “whole of government” approach, we are committed to assisting the affected areas throughout this crisis, in both the relief stage as well as the recovery and reconstruction periods. To that end, my colleagues Minister [Aileen] Carroll and Minister [Bill] Graham and I have announced that the Government has allocated $20 million to help those affected by this tragic earthquake. Some of the funds will be used to deploy 21 tonnes of winterized blankets by Hercules aircraft, in response to Pakistan’s request. We will also respond to appeals from the United Nations, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and other non-governmental organizations. Canadians are also becoming increasingly alarmed at infectious diseases being one of the most serious threats to their security in the 21st century. Diseases know no borders. The rapid movement of people across borders and continents makes public health a security priority for the global community. Our experience with SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] taught us that Canada can be quite vulnerable to this type of threat and that we need to deal proactively with public health threats such as the avian flu. We don’t know when or even if the avian flu will be the next pandemic, but we do know that we have to be prepared. To this end, Canada is hosting health ministers from around the world, as well as international organizations, to discuss priorities, coordination and action that will contribute to the planning undertaken by the World Health Organization. We have also announced $15 million for international initiatives to improve international preparedness for pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious diseases. The IPS outlines an integrated, comprehensive strategy to tackle these new threats, especially those that arise from weak, ineffectively governed states. This strategy comprises a set of flexible tools to enable us to effectively deal with conflict—from prevention, through development strategies, to greater support for human rights and democracy, to diplomacy to prevent conflict, and contributions to build human security. It includes greater capacity for deploying soldiers if we must do that. And it includes making sure that multilateral institutions, and international law, are up to the new, shifting challenges. A good example of the new, more holistic and more sophisticated approach can be seen in Canada’s response to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. There, the Prime Minister’s diplomatic initiative helped push the international community to deploy a range of multilateral tools—particularly the African Union, but also the United Nations and the G8—and to have them operate in new ways to protect civilians and build stability. It also gave impetus to the “Responsibility to Protect” concept, which I will discuss in more detail in a moment. And it cleared a path for a multi-layered Canadian response that has combined our defence, development and diplomatic tools. The third fundamental assumption of our review is that foreign policy issues cut across many more sectors of public policy than ever before. We see this in everything we do. Climate change, for example, is not simply an international environmental issue. It has an obvious impact on energy policy, on fiscal policy and on industrial policy. But climate change ultimately will impact many more areas of Canadian life, not least our security if global warming starts to wreak havoc on populations in our own Arctic and around the world. A fourth key assumption of the review is that the distinction between “domestic” and “international” is less meaningful. When we think of international policy we must also consider the domestic implications, as they will have an increasingly direct impact on Canadian lives. For an open country like Canada, the interdependence between domestic and foreign policies is obvious. It is probably more precise to speak about the need for national policies that successfully integrate the international and domestic dimensions of the modern Canadian reality. For example, can we talk about policies on health and education without immediately stepping into international territory? Even tax policy or farming policy—areas that one might think lie entirely within our sovereign right to do as we please—are becoming thoroughly internationalized. Get your fiscal and educational policies wrong and you are going to see your international competitiveness slide away, and with it the good jobs we need in this country. We see this evolution in the relationship between what is domestic and what is international as an opportunity for innovative and creative cooperation on foreign policy. The Department of Foreign Affairs no longer has foreign policy to itself. Today, to succeed on the issues that matter to Canadians, we need a “whole of government” approach and a “whole of Canada” approach that works—and is seen to work—for all Canadians. That is why the review was undertaken, for the first time, as an integrated exercise, which I led in close collaboration with my colleagues from Defence, CIDA [Canadian International Development Agency], International Trade and Finance, but also with ministers from other departments, almost all of whom have a strong international role to play. We are all committed to making that more coherent approach to international policy work in practice. To give you an example: to combat terrorism, at home and abroad, we are taking a whole-of-government approach to the factors that contribute to extremism. We can see this approach at work in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where soldiers from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry are working with diplomats from Foreign Affairs, constables from the RCMP and experts from CIDA as part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team that is helping local people rebuild their lives under difficult and often dangerous circumstances. Another example: this month, led by the Department of Foreign Affairs, eight departments sent senior officials to the Middle East to identify how best the Canadian government can back up Prime Minister Martin’s commitment to supporting the Middle East peace process. But I will be frank with you: making this new integrated approach to policy and its implementation work is a significant challenge. We are breaking new ground, and I am unaware of any country that has taken what we are calling “3D + T” cooperation—diplomacy, defence, development and trade—as far as we have in Canada. In fact, the progress we have made so far in this area is one of the things foreign governments are most curious about when we discuss with them the implications of the International Policy Statement. It is key that we ensure real coherence in what we are doing internationally. That not only demands that someone “send out the invitations and set the table,” but also demands that someone lead the discussion in a clear direction and follow up afterwards to make sure things get done. I intend to ensure that the Department of Foreign Affairs plays that essential role. It is more important than ever—with more players within government taking an active part internationally—that the Department of Foreign Affairs remain the coordinator of the overall Canadian international effort, acting as a central agency to maintain consistency and focus. To that end, we have launched a transformation exercise within the Department, to enable it to continue to play this leadership role. As important as it is to have a whole-of-government approach, it is even more crucial that we have a whole-of-Canada international strategy. An international policy that is not supported by Canadians and does not reflect their aspirations would be meaningless. And an international policy that fails to acknowledge how Canadians are both affected by, and themselves represent, Canada abroad would be useless. My predecessor, Minister Graham, recognized this when he led the Foreign Policy Dialogue in 2003, a cross-Canada public forum that solicited thousands of Canadians’ views on the shape of the new International Policy Statement. It is no surprise, then, that the IPS recognizes that our international policy must enable Canadians, already among the most “globalized” people in the world, to be even more fully engaged internationally. That includes individuals, non-governmental organizations, business and Canadians’ public institutions: cities and Parliament, the provinces and territories. The IPS observes that the distinctions between provincial, territorial and federal are becoming less significant, as our interests and priorities increasingly overlap. For example, if I mention education or forestry or farming, I am talking about areas where the provinces exercise either exclusive jurisdiction or share authority with the federal government. Each of these provincial responsibilities has a very important international dimension, but all Canadians benefit from a single voice speaking internationally for Canada. It is the only way that Canada’s message can be coherent, clear and strong. What this means is that we must work closely with the provinces, territories and cities. It means we must discuss with Canadians ways to advance the Government’s international agenda and listen to their perspectives on Canada’s role in the world. It means working together to project Canadian values and interests in this world, as we saw in the way all levels of government worked together with Canadians to address last year’s Asian tsunami crisis. However, we cannot succeed if we are in disarray. Consensus and unity are key, especially in front of a tough and unsentimental international audience. The unambiguous starting point for everything that follows is that to make our way successfully in the world, Canada must speak with one voice. It is the role of the federal government, and of the Department of Foreign Affairs in particular, to help ensure that Canadians come together with a common, national approach internationally, one that is in all Canadians’ interests. We are now moving ahead on both policy changes and specific initiatives to support the policy directions announced in the Statement. Allow me to give you some examples of what the Department is doing to implement the IPS, including new program initiatives. As I mentioned, the IPS recognizes that Canada’s ability to further our interests and values around the world rests on the strength of our relationships in North America, including Mexico. In response, we are about to complete the expansion of Canada’s network of missions in the United States, to a total of 22. We are also discussing the renewal and modernization of NORAD, as well as the strengthening of links between our Integrated Threat Assessment Centre and the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. We are expanding our political and security dialogue with Mexico, as it engages more actively on the world stage. In response to the growing threat posed by failed and fragile states, the IPS announced the establishment of the Stabilization and Reconstruction Taskforce—called START—to contribute Canadian expertise from across government, on a rapid reaction basis, to prepare for and respond to international crises in an integrated fashion. START, along with our human security program and other security-related efforts, is being supported by the new $500 million Global Peace and Security Fund. The Fund has already been put to work, supporting stabilization and reconstruction initiatives in Haiti, Sudan, the Middle East and Afghanistan. Beyond North America, the International Policy Statement highlights the importance of nurturing existing relationships, such as with our G8 partners, and of broadening relationships with emerging global actors, such as China, India and Brazil. We are developing whole-of-government strategies for these new giants that will commit us to long-term, “full service” relationships, like those we have with our G8 partners. To ensure that Canada’s voice is heard and that our interests and values are fully and aggressively represented, it is essential that we have a strong network of missions abroad. That is why we committed to reaching a target of 50 percent of Foreign Service officers serving at posts abroad by 2010 (up from the current 25 percent). The first group of a dozen additional officers is being sent this year to regions of key interest. However, we also recognize that traditional government-to-government diplomacy is not enough. We need to connect with audiences abroad, and with Canadians. Therefore, we are implementing a new public diplomacy strategy to maximize the visibility and impact of Canada’s international engagement in priority countries and regions, including stronger involvement by Canadians. And lastly, we are also taking a new approach to multilateralism—one that promotes pragmatic responses to global challenges. In advancing our new approach to multilateralism, United Nations reform is a cornerstone. As it is the unique political forum with the capacity to create global consensus on norms, policies and values, it is in everyone’s interest to strengthen and improve it. Canada wants UN management reforms to make the organization more transparent, efficient and effective, including greater authority for the Secretary-General to act on member states’ priorities and to allocate resources. A strong UN is essential in undertaking important tasks such as combatting terrorism and promoting peacebuilding and democratic initiatives. At the UN summit last month, we were successful in having the summit endorse our long-standing promotion of the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P), which advances the principle of sovereignty as responsibility: the idea that the obligation to protect civilians is inherent in state sovereignty. The concept argues that, in extreme cases when states are unable or unwilling to protect their own populations, responsibility must be borne by the broader community of states. In recognizing R2P, this body has taken a step beyond utterances of “never again”—a step that brings us closer to making atrocities like genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity things of the past. There is no question that states must remain the principal actors internationally, but with R2P we are saying that their authority flows not simply from having raw power, but from the way in which they exercise their responsibilities to their citizens, and indeed their responsibilities to the international community. But even with this major achievement in hand, we can’t sit back. We now need to work to implement R2P. It is a far-reaching idea, changing centuries of thinking about the rights of states. There remains much reluctance among many states, big and small, to this idea. In the past, Canada has been successful with campaigns to ban anti-personnel mines or to establish the International Criminal Court because those goals have been pursued with civil society, Canadian and global. Our role in those endeavours was to help those campaigns publicize their objectives, to advocate and to build up an unstoppable international wave in favour of doing the right thing. With R2P we need to now look at how we can take a leaf from those campaigns and start to grow a broad international public consensus that will take R2P from a concept to concrete action that saves lives. Also at the UN summit, we were successful in securing an agreement to establish a Peacebuilding Commission and a new Human Rights Council. The Peacebuilding Commission will complement R2P, helping to make sure that civilians are protected by giving the international community, through the UN, a new tool to help countries in crisis recover. The Human Rights Council, as we conceive it, will replace the old, discredited Human Rights Commission and give teeth to pursuing the human rights obligations to which all states are bound. But as with R2P, much more work must be done for these initiatives to become a reality. These will be among our chief priorities in the coming months at the UN. We also need to act on other pressing issues, such as climate change. As you may know, Canada offered to host the UN Climate Change Conference—or CoP 11/MoP 1—this November in Montreal. CoP 11 will serve as the 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. MoP 1 is the first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol after its entry into force this past February. As the head of the Canadian delegation at this meeting, I will be honoured to represent our country at this important event. This conference is important because there are a number of key decisions that must be made to operationalize implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. These include ratifying the Marrakech Accords—the detailed international rules that are at the heart of the Protocol—and setting up the implementation machinery, such as the Supervisory Board for Joint Implementation. If we are successful with this alone, progress will have been made. Having said that, given the seriousness of global climate change, it is essential to set the goals for Montreal much higher. This November, we must also lay the foundation on which the countries of the world will be able to begin to move forward, toward building effective and inclusive long-term international cooperation on climate change. Over the past seven months, Canada has engaged the world community in over 140 bilateral meetings, discussing options for effective long-term action on climate change. These meetings have provided invaluable information on what countries are expecting and, more important, what they will accept. With the insights we have gleaned from these meetings, I believe it will be possible for Canada to develop a forward-looking declaration in Montreal that would focus on six key elements: emphasizing environmental effectiveness; broadening participation; advancing development goals; strengthening market mechanisms; realizing the potential of advanced technologies; and addressing the need to deal with adaptation. In the lead-up to CoP 11, Canada will continue to work diligently in its role as host, and as President, to ensure consensus on a way forward on climate change. Another important example of the new multilateral approach—focused much more on results than on process—is the inaugural meeting of the Regional Forum for Middle East Ministers of Justice, or Middle East 4, established by Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, tentatively scheduled to be held in Ottawa in December of this year. The Forum was established in order to cultivate a dialogue on the rule of law and a common agenda for justice, and involves the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Another example is our role in our own hemisphere. Our commitment to this region is highlighted by our active engagement in the Summit of the Americas process ever since the first meeting in Miami in 1994. This was the first time that elected heads of state and government of 34 democratic countries of the Americas met to begin the process of developing a shared hemispheric vision. At the Quebec City Summit, Canada gave new impetus to reform in the hemisphere, especially through the Democracy Charter adopted at that meeting. On November 4 and 5, Argentina will host the fourth Summit of the Americas. The theme for this year’s Summit, “Creating Jobs to Combat Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance,” addresses some of the enduring challenges in the region. Canada welcomes this theme, which highlights the links between democracy and job creation, and among good governance, prosperity and equity. In Haiti, Canada has taken a lead role to support the people of this troubled nation as they build a new democracy. Currently, we head the UN police missions and are contributing 100 officers. We are providing significant bilateral aid as well. We recognize that making a difference in Haiti demands taking on serious responsibilities. That is why we are committed to seeing through this process, even though it may take a number of years to achieve success. Let me also offer the example of Nicaragua, which is facing a tense and destabilizing political crisis. The OAS [Organization of American States] mediation appears to be the only way to avoid a constitutional and political meltdown. Indeed, I had a comprehensive discussion on this subject with the OAS Secretary General a few weeks ago, and we agreed to work actively together to stimulate a national dialogue in that country, in accordance with the principles established in the Inter-American Democratic Charter. (Incidentally, the roots of this document lead back to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.) Of course, my efforts, and those of the Department, alone are not enough. Other government departments are also embarking on various initiatives to meet IPS objectives. For example:   •         the Department of National Defence has created the “Canada Command” as a single operational command headquarters for operations within Canada, and is increasing the Canadian Forces by 5,000 Regular and 3,000 Reserve personnel; •         the Canadian International Development Agency has committed $2.9 billion to double Canada’s international assistance by 2010, and to double assistance to Africa by 2008-2009 from its 2003-2004 level; and •         International Trade Canada is working to enhance our economic relationships with established partners, such as the United States and Mexico, Europe and Japan, and to forge partnerships with new economic powerhouses, such as China, India and Brazil. In conclusion, I want to stress that the International Policy Statement is not the end of the road, but a beginning. It is a blueprint, not a finished statement. As for the road ahead, I do foresee some key challenges for Canada. These include the need for more policy within various multilateral forums. As the recent summit showed, building consensus among the 191 member states of the United Nations is a major challenge. We need to look at ways to enable reform to move forward faster. One particular concern is that the non-proliferation and disarmament agenda is facing threats. We must ensure that the goals of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are met. Other challenges will include emerging issues like energy diplomacy, the global role of China, and the impact of demographic trends, both within North America and in other regions. However, these obstacles are surmountable. As long as we approach them with a concerted, whole-of-government, whole-of-Canada approach, we will make sure Canada’s voice is heard and that the interests of Canada and Canadians will be protected in the years to come. The Government of Canada will continue to exercise international leadership. By hosting international conferences, such as those involving environment ministers and health ministers this fall, and the Middle East 4 meeting in December, Canada is solidifying its role as a valued and valuable player in world affairs. We will continue to work with key international partners to find common ground on the challenges confronting us in this century. I would also like to underscore the importance of engaging Canadians in international policy. The Department’s Canada’s International Policy Statement Web site has been a key mechanism for gaining input from Canadians. Since the launch of the IPS, the Web site has received more than one million page views, and our outreach efforts have brought the eDiscussion project into 30 Canadian international relations-related university and college classes. In addition, I look forward to future meetings with the CIIA in key Canadian cities to promote the IPS. Through hosting a series of roundtables in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa, we hope to further Canada’s interests abroad by facilitating policy discussions related to the Statement. We will continue to solicit views and opinions from you, as well as from the general public, Parliament, the provinces and territories in helping shape my first annual International Policy Update. This annual update will help keep the IPS “evergreen” and ensure continued focus on its implementation across the government and Canada. In so doing, it will help to foster an integrative role and provide an annual focus for coherent Canadian business and policy planning. I am confident that we have set the proper path. Thank you. </body> </html>

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips



Last Updated: 2006-10-30	Top of Page	Important Notices