Trade - Global Security

Debris recovered from an Israeli-owned oil tanker attacked in international waters off Oman last week has prompted the U.S. Navy to say today that it was the same type of Shahed-136 drone that Iran has supplied to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The drone’s explosion caused minor damage to the Liberian-registered ship’s stern above the waterline. There was a similar attack on another Israeli tanker off Oman in July 2021 but Iran denied responsibility. [node:read-more:link]

Federal Innovation Science & Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne plans to use a visits to Japan and South Korea this week to tout Canada’s battery supply chain potential after a New York-based strategic research firm ranked Canada second only to China. “We have what Asia needs,” he says. Canada moved up the ranks over the past 10 months by announcing more than $15 billion in investments in areas ranging from critical mineral mining and processing to battery component and electric vehicle production. [node:read-more:link]

As he and other leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, gathered today in Bangkok for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said his country wants to be seen as a driver of regional unity. In an apparent dig at the U.S. – and despite China’s own aggressive expansionism – he said the region is “no one’s backyard” and should not become “an arena for big power contest.” [node:read-more:link]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is Canada’s sixth-largest trading partner as a bloc, to unveil a $333-million array of funding announcements. “This is a generational shift,” he said November 12 at the Phnom Penh summit, calling the funding as “concrete investments that are part of our commitment to this relationship.” [node:read-more:link]

World leaders have converged in Cambodia for the first in a series of international summits in Southeast Asia over the coming week. Globally-critical geopolitical divisions not seen in decades continue to evolve as the U.S. and China compete for leverage. [node:read-more:link]

Russian President Vladmir Putin will not attend next weeks’ G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, opting instead to send Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The decision was confirmed today by officials in Moscow and Indonesia who left open the possibility that Putin could participate remotely. [node:read-more:link]

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Jolie said today that while Canada must continue to trade with an increasingly autocratic and assertive China because of the country’s global economic clout, there’s a clear need to be careful because of its disregard for human right and international trading rules. These are key elements of a speech on Indo-Pacific strategies scheduled to be delivered today to the Asia Pacific Foundation and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy in Toronto. [node:read-more:link]

A national security review has prompted the federal government to order three Chinese companies to sell their interests in Canadian companies’ critical minerals development. The decision was announced today by Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Critical minerals and metals such as lithium, cadmium, nickel and cobalt are essential components of an array of electrical and electronics and while China is a dominant player in the industry, dependence on imported raw materials in many cases has prompted investments in other countries’ resource industries. [node:read-more:link]

Days after suspending support for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, Russia has agreed to reverse its decision after talks with Turkey, which was instrumental in brokering the safe-passage agreement. Russia said November 1 that Ukraine had given written assurances not to use the route for military purposes. [node:read-more:link]

The Turkish government said November 1 that it is determined to ensure that Ukrainian food exports will continue despite Russia’s abandonment on the weekend of a deal, brokered by Turkey, which is designed to ensure free movement of shipments out of a key Black Sea port. [node:read-more:link]

Accusing Ukraine of a drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, Russ has suspended its involvement in a deal to permit Ukraine to export grain from its ports there. Without offering evidence, the Kremlin also said British forces were involved in the attack, an accusation Britain dismissed as “peddling false claims of an epic scale.” [node:read-more:link]

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed today that she will present the federal government’s fall economic update to the House of commons on November 3. Her department said it will provide information “on the state of the Canadian economy within a challenging global environment and outline the government’s plan to continue building an economy that works for everyone.” [node:read-more:link]

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., Princess Reema bint Bandar al Saud, said in a televised interview aired October 24 that although her country’s relationship with the U.S. is at a “point of disagreement” over petroleum pricing and military sales, the relationship remains strong. She also rejected accusations that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with Russia, saying that it engages with “everybody across the board, those we agree with and those we disagree with.” [node:read-more:link]

The British government is being pressed by a committee of parliamentarians to impose hefty penalties on technology firms deemed to have abused their “entrenched market power.” Proposed legislation was unveiled last May but the committee now wants no more delays because it says consumers remain at risk because penalties so far are so small as to constitute what the committee says have been “a small cost business cost.” [node:read-more:link]

European markets fearing natural gas shortages this winter because of curtailed Russian supplies now have a different conundrum to deal with: a huge oversupply. Dozens of liquefied natural gas carriers are anchored offshore, unable to offload because gassification facilities are limited and demand has been reduced by the unseasonably warm autumn in many markets. [node:read-more:link]