Friends, Neighbours, Allies

"Everything that the United States does is off the charts in terms of their scale compared to everyone else."

"But other countries, including us, are looking at having a greater presence and ability to mobilize here in this region.  That includes things like humanitarian relief."  Defence Minister Peter MacKay

Canadians were informed some while ago that the Department of National Defence planned to locate small military bases discretely here and there around the world.  Those small bases to enable the Canadian military to respond expeditiously to emergency situations, as part of NATO, defending democracy presumably. But here Minister MacKay raises the issue of humanitarian relief, as well.

Here's Canada taking an entirely new tack.  Not the aid and assistance related to humanitarian relief necessarily, but mimicking the United States, with its post 2nd World War stationing of military bases in various parts of the world to ensure both stability and political hegemony.  Is Canada in that very specialized area of military and relief corridors of response?

Guess that's where we're heading.  Since the information has now been released that Canada is negotiating with Singapore for the establishment of a military staging post.  Partnering, it would appear, with our neighbour, the United States, in its own move to re-establish its maritime fleet in residence in the Pacific, moving from the Atlantic.

As goes the fortunes of the United States, so too goes Canada's future.  Thus has it always been, and thus will it remain in perpetuity, it seems.  Since there is little other choice, truth to tell.  We are neighbours.  As the smaller of the two nations living in close contiguous relationship with a long border and a dependence on trade and many shared values, it is inevitable that we share the future.

Canada has already reached agreement for similar military hubs to be positioned in Kuwait and in Jamaica, giving the country a small military presence footprint in both the Middle East and the Caribbean.  But, in this instance, clearly the Pacific presence has some relationship to the issue of China-U.S. relations.  There is huge suspicion on both sides.

And China's rattling of its sabres about offshore oil deposits in competition with other Pacific nations also claiming ownership due to territorial waters, in dispute with China, sees the U.S. defending the interests of its political allies against the belligerent claims of China about "international waters" clearly meant to benefit itself.

This is a kind of double game that Canada is playing.  On the one hand, our friendship and reliance with the United States confers some obligations upon us to support that country.  We have far more in common with Americans than we do with China as far as social and political values are concerned.  On the other hand, dependence on the U.S. for trade opportunities grates on the Canadian psyche, particularly when we're rebuffed and sent to the back of the line.

Which situation with the oil pipeline going through U.S. states taking offense to its presence, had Canada looking desperately for alternatives, and settling on the obvious: China and enhanced trade with that country.  So, while Canadian diplomats are working on some version of a free-trade agreement with China, the Canadian military is looking to support the U.S. in its political quibbles and concerns about Chinese military equipment acquisitions.

"As that old joke goes about the 500-pund gorilla, you do it very carefully.  China has a lot of heft.  It's a very fine line to walk.  So we're very cautious and judicious in how we deal with China.  Having said that, we continue to speak to them in a very honest way, including raising issues of human rights when we feel it's appropriate."  Peter MacKay