Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a series of funding announcements in Cambodia on Saturday aimed at deepening economic and academic ties with Southeast Asia, after decades of sporadic engagement with the region. “This is a generational change,” Trudeau told leaders gathered in Phnom Penh for a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “I’m announcing specific investments that are part of our commitment to this relationship,” he said, before listing $333 million in new funding. He was speaking at an event celebrating 45 years of Canada’s relationship with ASEAN, which comes as the group negotiates a free trade agreement with Canada. The 10-country bloc includes some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and the Liberals say they want to steer trade away from China over concerns ranging from human rights to intellectual property. “There are no surprises; the cards are on the table and our goal is to be present in the region,” Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie told reporters in French. Trudeau unveiled funding for closer ties to Southeast Asia, spread over five years. The largest chunk, $133 million, will go to feminist-focused development assistance in ASEAN countries, a quarter of which will go to Canadian civil society groups. Ottawa will also spend $84.3 million on a new Shared Oceans Fund aimed at cracking down on illegal fishing in the area and $40 million on an escrow fund to help public officials and civil society research the area Indo-Pacific. The Liberals are earmarking $24 million for a private sector center to inform businesses of opportunities in Asia and the same amount for the Asia Pacific Foundation to operate an office on the continent. Funding is also available to conduct educational exchanges and to assist ASEAN counties in negotiating trade agreements with Canada. Meanwhile, Trudeau’s office said ASEAN granted Canada the status of a comprehensive strategic partnership, which is the highest level of recognition for third countries. The US and India also received this status on Saturday, placing them alongside previously recognized partners Australia and China. ASEAN as a bloc is already Canada’s sixth largest trading partner. The majority of the population in ASEAN member countries is under the age of 30, a demographic shift that is shaping economic opportunities in the region. A rising middle class is bolstering countries like Indonesia and Thailand, while the prospect of cheap labor is forcing companies to move jobs from China to places like Vietnam and the Philippines. As for Cambodia, Canada is one of its top trading partners, with bilateral trade reaching $1.82 billion last year. About 98% of that was in goods that Cambodia sold to Canada, such as clothing and footwear, in exchange for just $38.5 million in Canadian goods such as vehicle parts and artificial fur. Trade between the two countries has increased despite a limited diplomatic presence. In 2009, the government of then-prime minister Stephen Harper closed the Canadian embassy in Phnom Penh, downgrading it to a consular office. At the time, Ottawa cited a “serious review of Canada’s current diplomatic representation abroad,” but many questioned the move toward budget cuts. Trudeau met Saturday with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, but made no mention of opening an embassy, and Jolie was vague about the idea. “Our goal is to be more present in the region,” he said in English, noting that the Liberals have opened embassies in Africa after their Conservative predecessors closed them. Wayne Farmer, head of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council, said Ottawa is lagging behind the US, Australia, Britain and France in building strong trade ties with the region. “It’s the furthest part of the world from Canada; it’s furthest from Africa, it’s furthest from North Asia and it’s furthest from Europe. It’s no wonder we’d be late,” Farmer said. “But in today’s world with communication and transportation the way it is, that’s not much of an excuse.” Farmer said Canada had a large presence in ASEAN countries decades ago, in the post-colonial period of the 1960s, as a major aid partner. Canada is still known in the region for leading a global effort in the 1990s to clear landmines. And yet, Canada withdrew from the region as some of the countries crossed the threshold to be considered developed and began to become economically heavy. “We’ve had a reputation as of late of being in and out of markets, being fair-weather friends and doing some weird stuff,” said Farmer, who is based in Singapore. “It would be the natural transition from development aid to business development.” However, Canada’s private sector has a growing presence in the region, with Canadian pension funds investing across the region. Insurance companies like Manulife and Sun Life are household names in ASEAN countries like the Philippines. One of Cambodia’s largest banks, ABA, is owned by Montreal-based National Bank. Farmer argues that Ottawa has made it harder to build those ties. Canada requires visas for business travelers from every ASEAN country and adheres to some of the strictest COVID-19 travel rules. Delays in processing immigration have delayed student visas, including some who were halfway through their degrees in Canada, and Farmer says Ottawa is at risk of losing students to places like Australia. Jeffrey Reeves, director of research at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, said the West is also hurting its reputation by doing little to enable developing countries to produce vaccines for COVID-19, such as through patents. “China provided vaccines to most of Asia, while the global West stockpiled supplies and blocked the transfer of technology to overseas production,” he noted on a panel on November 1. “Such things honestly don’t go unnoticed and are not easily forgotten.” Reeves added that Canada’s continued rhetoric about a rules-based international order is not resonating in Southeast Asia, where polls show many have a positive view of China and Russia. “Not only are these priorities not aligned with each other, they may actually be at odds,” he said, arguing that Canada is wanted for its goods but not for “unwanted interference” in geopolitics. Stephanie Martel, a professor of international relations at Queen’s University and a leading ASEAN expert, says Canada could play a role in building consensus on a number of issues. He said Canada can build relationships with Southeast Asian countries by focusing on their individual trajectories, rather than painting them as under the thumb of China or the United States. Martel says this comes down to “recognizing and respecting the fact that many of these countries don’t fit neatly into these democratic and authoritarian categories.” In Cambodia, for example, Sen has ruled since 1985, and Human Rights Watch accuses his party of persecuting political opposition. The country is plagued by corruption, restrictions on press freedom and human trafficking. China is helping upgrade Cambodia’s main naval base, which the US sees as a threat to regional stability. The ASEAN bloc also faces a worrying human rights situation in Myanmar, one of its 10 member states, where chaos has prevailed since a February 2021 coup by that country’s military. The bloc has isolated Myanmar’s leadership but failed to reach a consensus on Friday on how to implement a peace plan developed months ago. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 12, 2022.
