Justin Trudeau at APEC calls on middle powers to step up

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for middle and smaller nations to step up where the US has stepped back.

Justin Trudeau used his speech on Friday to the Malaysia-hosted digital meeting to warn the era of “Pax Americana” was over. Picture: AFP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for middle and smaller nations to step up where the US has stepped back to shore up multilateral institutions and ensure that China “plays by the rules”, in a powerful address to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.

Mr Trudeau used his speech on Friday to the Malaysia-hosted digital meeting to warn the era of “Pax Americana” was over — notwithstanding an anticipated shift back to multilateralism under president-elect Joe Biden — and smaller nations needed to pull together to show leadership on issues from global trade to coercive Chinese diplomacy.

“It’s time for smaller countries to realise we all have a weight and ability to shape global leadership in meaningful ways for our citizens and neighbours,” Mr Trudeau told the APEC summit in a 45-minute online address that included a question-and-answer session.

“In the face of pressure and increasingly coercive moves by one of the world’s great powers, it really highlights we need to be working together as allies, as neighbours, as friends, as countries.

“Very few countries can stand up on (their) own to a great power but working together in alignment we can make sure there is a recognition that the path China is choosing to take right now probably is not going to be as effective as they think it will.

“All of us trying to work together to say: ‘No, we just want the rules to be respected, we want people to respect the rule of law, we want not to see political decisions impact the safety of our citizens or the smooth flow of trade.’ Obviously the more countries pull together the more impactful we will be.”

Mr Trudeau’s address to the 21-nation bloc comes as Canada and Australia — two of the world’s middle powers — face rising diplomatic and trade pressure from Beijing over their push-back against Chinese coercion.

On Thursday President Xi Jinping used his APEC address to underline China’s commitment to opening up its economy, pointing to Beijing’s participation in the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement signed last week. “We will not reverse course or run against the historical trend by decoupling, or forming a small circle to keep others out,” Mr Xi said, in a swipe at US protectionism under Donald Trump.

“Openness enables a country to move forward, while seclusion holds it back.”

He also urged all countries to “act in the spirit of partnership, step up policy communication and co-ordination, intensify all-round global co-operation against COVID-19 and keep the global economy open”.

White House officials have said Mr Trump would attend the Friday night leaders’ summit — one of few public engagements since his election defeat — and address fellow APEC leaders in a speech likely to highlight China’s role in the pandemic and its “bullying” of smaller Indo-Pacific nations.

It will be only the second time that Mr Trump has participated in APEC, the other occasion being in 2017.

US relations with China have deteriorated badly amid their escalating trade war.

So has Canada’s since the 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of the Chinese telecom giant’s founder Ren Zhengfei, following a US extradition request on charges the company violated American sanctions on Iran.

China quickly retaliated by arresting two Canadian citizens, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and tour operator Michael Spavor, who have been held in solitary confinement for 18 months and are being tried for espionage.

Mr Trudeau said the world needed to call out human rights abuses by Beijing, “whether it’s concerns with behaviour in Hong Kong or the situation with the (Muslim) Uighurs”, as many as a million of whom are being held in mass incarceration in Xinjiang province.

“We need to work together as a world to say that not only is this not in the world’s interests, it’s actually not in China’s interests to continue to behave in a way that is trying to use its weight to get its way.

“The more we can pull together as countries that respect the rule of law and say ‘we are all for more economic growth and opportunity, but we need to know people are going to play by the rules’ … that’s the direction the world needs to go in.”