New
Canadian FM, in London, pledges more focused foreign policy
By
Robert
MacPherson
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com
02 24 06
Canada's new foreign minister Peter MacKay, on his first overseas
trip, held out the prospect of a bolder, more focused foreign
policy from Ottawa in the wake of the election of its first Conservative
government in a dozen years.
Speaking in London after lunch with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw,
MacKay pointed to Canada's contribution in Afghanistan -- where
it is taking charge of NATO operations in the dangerous south
-- as a taste of things to come.
"What we hope to do is to establish further credibility"
in a number of foreign policy areas, the affable Nova Scotian
told reporters in Canada House overlooking Trafalgar Square in
the heart of the British capital.
"That means playing a more active role in some cases. That
means stepping up our presence and stepping up our resource commitments
(and) perhaps bringing, if I can dare say so, a little more focus
to our foreign policy."
MacKay lunched with Straw at the Foreign Office a month to the
day after Canadians ended a dozen straight years of Liberal Party
rule and elected a minority Conservative government led by Stephen
Harper.
He travelled later Thursday to Turin to join Governor General
Michelle Jean for the closure of the Winter Olympic Games, before
meeting European Union foreign ministers -- all 25 of them --
in Brussels next Monday.
MacKay, a foreign affairs neophyte climbing a steep learning curve,
will also have meetings with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana
and NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Canada is taking command of NATO forces in Kandahar and surrounding
southern Afghan provinces -- including British troops -- as the
United States gives its allies a bigger role in fighting Taliban
remnants and restoring order.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP that Straw -- just back
from a lightning visit to Baghdad -- discussed Iraq, Iran, the
Middle East, Afghanistan and Commonwealth affairs with his new
Canadian counterpart.
"It was their first substantive meeting, indeed their first
meeting ever," she said. "It was a get-to-know-you atmosphere."
The two also discussed the kidnapping in late November in Baghdad
of four peace activists -- two Canadians, a Briton and an American
-- by a group calling itself the Brigades of the Swords of Righteousness.
It threatened to kill all four unless US-led coalition forces
freed all Iraqi prisoners. There was no word on their fate until
a video was released late last month in which they looked thin
and haggard.
"We touched briefly, very briefly on the situation surrounding
the hostages," MacKay said, adding that there was "an
elevated concern" after Wednesday's bombing of a revered
Shiite mosque in Samarra that touched off a bloody wave of sectarian
violence and fears of civil war.
MacKay's decision to make Europe the focus of his first official
trip abroad came as something of a surprise, given the overwhelming
importance of the United States on Canada's economy, trade and
foreign policy.
"One country had to come first," he said Thursday, "so
here I am in the United Kingdom."
He said he still hopes to be able to see US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice before a summit in Mexico in late March between
Harper, US President George W. Bush and Mexican leader Vincente
Fox.
Canada-US relations were tested under former Liberal prime minister
Paul Martin, who refused to join the US missile defence programme,
then played an anti-American card in his unsuccessful re-election
campaign.
"We want to, if I can put it this way, get back to a businesslike
and respectful relationship with the United States," MacKay
said.
AFP
02 23 06
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© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
