00:00Hello, welcome. My name is Lisa Abramowitz. I am co-host of Bloomberg Surveillance on Bloomberg Television in the mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. local in New York.
00:10I am here with a very important interview, so I would appreciate it to get started.
00:15We have the Foreign Minister of Canada with us, Anita Anand, who has been in Parliament for a long time.
00:21She has been in Canada's government for a long time.
00:24And she is coming to Davos for the first time, I believe, at a pretty interesting moment geopolitically.
00:30I would like to start by asking you what the mood has been like in the run-up to this meeting as you have conversations with your counterparts around the world.
00:39So it is non-stop in terms of issues that confront us, new issues that confront us every single day.
00:46Whether it is our NATO allies, and I'm sure we'll get to discussing Arctic security and Arctic sovereignty,
00:54whether it is the Indo-Pacific region, we're just back from China, for example, striking a landmark set of agreements with China for Canada.
01:05Whether it is in the Northern Hemisphere generally, or the Americas, we are daily confronted with numerous challenges,
01:15and Canada is charting its own course, diversifying trade relations, making sure we double non-U.S. trade over the next 10 years,
01:24and ensuring that we stand four-square behind our NATO allies.
01:29So let's talk about that trip to China and Qatar. You've been on the road for about a week.
01:33In China, on Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney came out with this statement.
01:37He said that the world has changed, and that the progress made with China on the behalf of Canada sets Canada up well for the new world order.
01:46What did he mean by new world order?
01:48So if I could just take that question in two parts.
01:51The first is, what did we do with China?
01:53What occasioned the Prime Minister to make a statement like that?
01:57And first and foremost, we have begun a new era of relations with China.
02:02We struck a deal which reduces tariffs on canola and seafood products,
02:09and we made sure that we're on a track for a strategic partnership covering numerous areas,
02:16including clean and conventional energy, including trade and economic relations,
02:22including safety and security, and multilateralism.
02:25So the work that we are doing bilaterally and multilaterally with China is in a new era.
02:31At the same time, Prime Minister Carney was referring to the complete rewiring and volatility
02:39that is underpinning the trade relationships and the WTO among countries,
02:46and he was clear to say, as we believe, that we have not reached that new world order.
02:53It is not defined at this moment.
02:55We are in a process of volatility where we see a reordering of international relationships
03:03and a pragmatic approach to global conflict.
03:07We see that in terms of Ukraine with the Coalition of the Willing
03:10and Security Guarantees as a prime example.
03:13So how much is this, the rest of the world moving away from the United States?
03:16This is, as I said, a pragmatic approach to international relationships,
03:22that it is one and the same time self-interested.
03:26That is why Canada is diversifying its trade relationships.
03:30We need to ensure that we bolster and grow the domestic economy.
03:36At the same time, we will not retreat from our multilateral relationships.
03:40Canada stands for certain values, the upholding of international law,
03:47the insurance that multilaterally we are cooperative and collaborative,
03:51and at the same time pursuing the ever-important growth of the domestic economy
03:57in areas where Canada is a superpower, energy being the prime example.
04:02The deal with China included reducing tariffs on electric vehicles coming into Canada from China
04:08and China reducing tariffs on agricultural goods going to China from Canada.
04:13How far do you expect this alliance to go?
04:15Is there more to come with respect to tariffs being pared back,
04:19closer alliances commercially?
04:21Well, as I said, this is a new era in Canada-China relations.
04:25And what that means is that there will be growth and advancement in the relationship
04:31as we continue to pursue the strategic partnership,
04:36the new strategic partnership, I should add,
04:39that Prime Minister Carney and President Xi agreed to just a few days ago.
04:44What that means is that you are going to see continued symbiosis across issues,
04:50especially in the economic area.
04:52But let me take it back to energy.
04:54Canada is an energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy.
04:58The first shipment of the LNG left Canada's west coast of British Columbia just last summer.
05:04And everywhere I go, countries are asking, how can we have more of Canada?
05:12So much of discussions here at Davos this year have been concerning Greenland.
05:17That was not my bingo card coming into this.
05:18I'm just wondering, from your perspective,
05:21how much that sucked the oxygen out of the room for issues like Ukraine,
05:25for other types of geopolitical discussions?
05:27Well, I was the Minister of National Defence between 2021 and 2023 in Canada.
05:34And at that time, the Arctic and indeed Arctic security and sovereignty
05:38was very much on our radar and it continues to be the case.
05:42With the Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine, for example,
05:45and Russian infrastructure moving further and further north,
05:49we as an Arctic country, 70% of our coastline is interfacing with the Arctic,
05:5440% of our territory.
05:56We have no choice but to ensure that we are bolstering our Arctic presence.
06:01We are doubling, indeed, our troop work and deployment nationally and internationally.
06:09We're going to make sure that we increase our defense spending to 5% of GDP,
06:16as NATO allies are doing.
06:18This is our promise.
06:20$80 billion was in our last budget for defense spending.
06:25Are troops from NATO going to Greenland and going to Arctic regions
06:29in order to protect against possible incursions from China and from Russia
06:34or from the United States?
06:37So the question of troops in Greenland seems to be so prevalent.
06:41Let me just say, NATO allies routinely do exercises, military exercises together.
06:49That's a fact.
06:50The point that I've been raising with Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO,
06:55is historically NATO's gaze has been eastward, on the eastern flank.
06:59Canada's largest military operation is Operation Reassurance in Latvia, for example.
07:05But what I've been saying to Mark Rutte, including before the attention has been focused on Greenland,
07:11is that NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
07:17NATO needs to have a northern and western focus.
07:22This is clear.
07:23It is one of the primary reasons that NATO was founded, in my view.
07:30Canada's a founding member of NATO, and we deeply encourage a greater focus on the Arctic.
07:36And finally, I'll say, I'm headed to Greenland,
07:39a trip that was planned long before the past couple of weeks' events took place.
07:43I'll be going with my Danish and, of course, Greenland counterparts
07:50to open, formally, the Canadian consulate there during the first week of February.
07:55Are we watching the NATO alliance collapse?
07:59Not at all.
08:00What we are watching is the refocus on geographical areas
08:06that demand attention by the strongest military alliance in the world.
08:11Canada will continue to remain at the table.
08:15We are a multilateral believer.
08:19We believe in the strength of working cooperatively and collaboratively with our allies,
08:25including at NATO and other multilateral organizations.
08:29That won't change.
08:30But we're also pragmatic.
08:32And so we come to the table in order to lead,
08:35in order to ensure that the rules-based international order,
08:40although it is shifting,
08:42is extremely important for global stability.
08:45Are you concerned that the sovereignty of Canada is being threatened
08:49by the potential threat on Greenland's sovereignty?
08:54Canada will never be the 51st state.
08:56We will always ensure that we stand foursquare behind our NATO allies.
09:02Is this something that would cause you to increase your defense spending further, beyond 5%?
09:07Look, we have, as I said, put down a commitment for $80 billion in defense spending,
09:17increasing our defense spending to 5% by 2035.
09:22That is a more than solid commitment and insurance that military spending in service of the protection
09:32and defense of Canada and our multilateral alliances is extremely solid.
09:38How much of your time this Davos and just beforehand are you spending with European counterparts
09:42asking for advice on how to handle the United States?
09:45That's an interesting question, actually.
09:49I have been on the phone in very wee hours of the morning
09:54with several of my foreign minister colleagues to discuss these types of questions.
10:00But rest assured, the focus is not only on domestic stability
10:08from the perspective of each country that I'm speaking with,
10:13but also on how we can work together.
10:16The strength of collaboration is underestimated.
10:23Do you think that the U.S. and Canada can ever repair the relationship over time
10:28that has been pretty severely influenced over the past year?
10:33Canada and the United States share the longest undefended border in the world.
10:38And we have had hundreds of years of cooperation and collaboration.
10:45Every relationship has its challenges.
10:48But let me say that with $300 billion of goods and services
10:52passing through the Canada-U.S. border every day,
10:56we will always remain friends.
10:59Just real quick, I know you have to run to a meeting.
11:01I want to ask you, the big elephant in the room is Wednesday's meeting,
11:04Wednesday's speech by President Donald Trump.
11:06What are you expecting to hear?
11:08Well, my focus as the Foreign Minister of Canada is on Prime Minister Carney's speech,
11:13and so I'm really looking forward to that.
11:15And I will also say that we have, indeed, eyes on what leaders around the world are saying.
11:27Again, let's bring this back to Canadian values.
11:29We're doubling non-U.S. trade in the next 10 years.
11:33We're diversifying our trading partners, China, India.
11:39We just agreed to a comprehensive economic partnership agreement negotiations with India
11:44when we were at the G20.
11:47Indonesia, Mexico, South American countries, including Ecuador, whom I believe is at Davos.
11:54Listen, the work is intense, but Canada will continue to stand for Canada's interests,
12:01and that is in terms of economic success as well as the defence and security of our country.
12:08Minister Anand, thank you so much for taking the time today.
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