John Baird, the Canadian foreign minister, visited the UAE last week, during which he held meetings with senior policymakers. He also led a delegation of Canadian business leaders and met with the Canada-UAE Business Council. The National's Editor-in-Chief, Mohammed Al Otaiba, sat down with him for a wide-ranging discussion on regional politics and economics. Below is an excerpt from that conversation
q Mohammed Al Otaiba: Mr Baird, you are here for a meeting of the Canada-UAE Business Council and are leading a delegation of Canadian business leaders to the UAE. What is this mission aiming to achieve?
a John Baird: The relationship between Canada and the UAE, at a government-to-government level, has come an extraordinary distance in the last four years. We want the same thing with trade, investment and commerce, and to try to look up business opportunities for Canadian and Emirati firms to do good things together.
Beyond Canada and the UAE, are you looking at other opportunities within the region as well, whether it's the broad Middle East or Africa?
The Emirates have become a real platform, not just for the Gulf and the Middle East, but, indeed, a big chunk of Africa. So there's an extraordinary amount of things that can be done by Canadian and Emirati firms together.
You will be attending the Sir Bani Yas Forum, which brings together global thought leaders to ponder and discuss Middle East issues. What is this year's theme?
There's no doubt we'll be looking at some of the big challenges in the region, whether it's Iran's nuclear programme, material support for terrorism, whether it's the challenge of Daash [also known as ISIL] and [Syrian president Bashar Al] Assad's war against his own people. We can also look at all the positive trends. The new government in Egypt has come a long way in a very short time, and obviously we all want to stand behind and support it.
On the coalition against ISIL, can you tell us the level of operation that Canada has been involved in?
We've stepped up in a big way. Militarily, we've conducted more than 20 heavy lift drops, bringing munitions and arms into Erbil in support of the Kurdish peshmerga. We have a training mission there as well. We also have almost 600 personnel supporting six F-18s, [a] supporting refueler and two reconnaissance planes. We want to do our part in humanitarian aid for the victims of the brutality, cut off the finances and curb foreign fighters. So Canada wants to do its share of the heavy lifting to combat this problem.
Your aircraft are based in Kuwait. Is there anything you can say about any cooperation with the UAE?
At the political level, before we made the decision to join the coalition, we had extensive consultations with our friends and allies – the United States, the Emirates. We appreciate the strong and early leadership by [Foreign Minister] Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and the UAE Government. The fact that you see regional actors doing their share, their help was one of the factors that inspired us.
To what degree was your decision to join the anti-ISIL coalition prompted by the attack on the Canadian parliament?
Our mission had already been approved by the time that happened. We're doing our best to try to cut off foreign fighters going from Canada to fight in either Syria or Iraq. One of them was denied a passport, and was frustrated by that in several reports. The war against terrorism is a great struggle of our generation, and we're more determined than ever to do our part in that fight.
Can you tell us the extent of Islamist self-radicalisation you are beginning to notice in Canada? Are you able to say what measures you are taking to monitor and react to these instances?
Unfortunately, Canada is not immune from this, just like any western country. We obviously count on our intelligence service and on law enforcement agencies to do their part. We recently put legislation before parliament to enhance the capacity of our intelligence service to combat this challenge and, obviously, in light of the two terrorist attacks in Canada, we're looking at what else we can do to take reasonable measures to keep Canadians safe. We can also look to the experience of others. This is the great struggle of our generation, and that's why it's so tremendously important that civilised countries stand together. That's why we appreciate the leadership of the UAE and are proud to be working alongside it.
How many Canadians have travelled to fight in Syria, Iraq and Somalia?
We estimate well in excess of a hundred to Syria and Iraq. Probably additionally more in Somalia. We obviously want to do all we can to stop these endeavours. We can do that by revoking and denying passports, and obviously look at what [else] we can do to try to nip this in the bud.
Canadians can travel to the UAE without the need for a visa. Do you anticipate offering the same visa-free travel for UAE citizens?
We have a review process that takes place before we can give an exemption on the visa requirement. We've been working closely with the officials here in the UAE. Nothing to report on that yet. The [visa] refusal rate for Emirati citizens is extremely low, and that obviously will play a big part in the decision.
Would it be possible to consider alternative arrangements, such as providing visa-free admission for UAE citizens who already have a US visa?
That's something our current legislation doesn't allow. But it's an obvious thing that we can look into. We do have multi-entry visas that last as long as 10 years, which make it incredibly easy [to visit Canada]. What we're looking at is: Is there is a case we can make under our law for visa exemption? I can't make any comments at this stage, but it's something that our officials are talking about.
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