Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Ottawa-Moscow Ties

From UNIAN:
"TASS: Canada ready to mend ties with Russia that soured over Ukraine"

Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion signaled on Tuesday Ottawa's readiness to resume a dialogue with Russia that stopped over the developments in Ukraine, according to Russian news agency TASS.   "Canada was speaking to the Russians even at the tough times of the Cold War, and now we are not speaking, almost not, because of the former policy of the former government," Stephane Dion said on Tuesday, TASS wrote. "We have a lot of disagreements with the government of Russia but it's certainly not the way to stop speaking with them when the Americans speak with them and all the Europeans, the Japanese, everybody except Canada," Dion added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Tuesday that Russia and Canada were interested and were ready to resume bilateral partnership suspended by the government of Stephen Harper. "Russia is interested in good relations with all countries. That is why, when we say we are ready for cooperation with the West, we certainly mean Canada as well," Lavrov said. "We have common tasks and common interests in what concerns Arctic development and cooperation in northern latitudes in general as well as positive experience in economic, trade and other cooperation," he said, adding that "despite ups and downs in our relations" "each time common sense prevailed eventually." The recent two years have been "the time of missed opportunities" for both Russia and Canada, Lavrov said. In November 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on the sidelines of G20 summit, Lavrov said, where "both sides expressed wish, readiness and engagement in normalization of relations." "We assume that practical steps should be taken by our partners who announced their intention to rectify mistakes made by their predecessors," the minister said.

^ Now the real test is coming for Trudeau and his government. So far he has only done cosmetic changes and now we will see what this government is really capable of. If they become too friendly with Russia without the Crimea being returned to the Ukraine or the fighting in eastern Ukraine ending then Canada will become a laughing-stock, pushover country around the world. The fact that Canada has a large and politically powerful Ukrainian population is also something to consider. There is a fine line that must be followed. You don't want to be too aggressive towards Russia (because they tend to be a very paranoid attitude towards foreigners and foreign-influence within their country) but at the same time you can't just sit-back and let them break the international treaties they signed in support of a Ukrainian Crimea and invade, occupy and annex the Crimea with no consequences. I'll be following how Canada implements this new dialogue. ^
 
 

http://www.unian.info/world/1247412-tass-canada-ready-to-mend-ties-with-russia-that-soured-over-ukraine.html

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