Two cheers for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.
Why?
Because not every government can demonstrate the distinct indifference to citizens of its own country to such an extent that the representative of another government can speak for them.
Because rarely in international conferences is a host country openly criticized for not inviting all the parties concerned regarding the issues being discussed.
But our federal government managed to achieve both of the feats.
During Monday’s meeting, in Gatineau, Quebec, of the foreign ministers of five countries (Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States) that are littoral states to the Arctic Sea, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not mince her words in scolding Cannon not only for forgetting to invite a few countries that have a stake in what happens in the north, namely Sweden, Finland and Iceland, but also failing to have Canada’s own Arctic aboriginal communities represented at the event.
“Significant international discussions on Arctic issues should include those who have legitimate interests in the region,” Clinton was quoted as saying.
“And I hope the Arctic will always showcase our ability to work together, not create new divisions.”
According to the reports, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store also indirectly criticized the Canadian government for still looking at international relations through the prism of the Cold War.
“We sometimes analyze Russia with old mental maps, with the mental maps of the Cold War, where we have instinctive reactions to what we see and hear,” Store said according to Canadian Press.
One needs to understand from the outset that Clinton was probably not speaking for her love of fairness and her wish to have as many countries represented at the meeting had possibly much more to do with a wish to weaken Canada’s position in discussing who has a claim for what in the Arctic than a concern of being just to others.
Therefore, the problem is not the content but the context of the criticism, a context which should not have been provided as a ground for such brazen censure.
Diplomacy is a very exquisite way of pursuing national interests and there is no room whatsoever for clumsiness in it.
It is no secret that Prime Minister Harper feels himself close to the G. W. Bush way of doing things, but he should also be reminded that Bush way of doing things cost a lot of trust and prestige to the United States during his presidency.
In addition, Canada is not the United States and we have a lot more limitations in what we can pursue and how we can pursue it.
One would wish that there would be at least a few rational individuals in his entourage to tell Mr. Harper that he should fine tune his policies a little.
- Mustafa Eric