Canadian Prime Minister Carney is in Beijing to strengthen relations with Xi Jinping: a move that will likely irritate the White House
Ottawa challenges the reissue of the Monroe Doctrine, promoted by Donald Trump. Visiting Beijing to meet Xi Jinping, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrated his country’s relations with China. “It is important to launch this new strategic partnership at a time of division,” he said, addressing the Chinese president and underlining the desire to intensify cooperation in areas such as energy, agriculture and finance. “It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in the path of improving China-Canada relations. The healthy and stable development of China-Canada relations serves the common interests of our two countries,” Xi replied.
In short, Ottawa aims to strengthen its ties with Beijing. Which obviously comes into conflict with the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, on the basis of which Washington aims to consolidate its influence on the Western Hemisphere, ousting powers considered hostile. Over the past twelve months, relations between the United States and Canada have been quite tense. Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants the neighboring country to become the fifty-first state of the Union. There was also no lack of significant commercial fibrillations between Washington and Ottawa. Finally, a further issue concerns Venezuela. By confiscating Caracas’ oil after the capture of Nicolas Maduro, Trump has created the conditions to reduce the US’s dependence on Canadian crude. This is mainly why Carney is trying to consolidate energy relations with the People’s Republic.
In this context, it is very likely that the Canadian prime minister’s trip to Beijing will significantly irritate the White House: the White House that aims to reduce the economic and geopolitical influence of the Dragon in the Western Hemisphere as much as possible. In this sense, in Trump’s eyes, the Venezuelan dossier is connected to the Panamanian one and also to the Greenland one. On all these fronts, the US president has in fact mainly targeted Beijing. Trump will therefore see Ottawa’s pro-Chinese maneuvers as a challenge to his national security strategy, also because the occupant of the White House would like to include Canada in the Golden Dome project: the missile defense system which, last year, was harshly criticized by the Chinese government.
