The Canadian government on Thursday said that it had renegotiated the terms of a US$14 billion light armored vehicles contract with Saudi Arabia, paving the way for exports to recommence.
Vehicle sales had been on hold since 2018 due to tensions between Ottawa and Riyadh over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the war in Yemen.
The move marks a shift for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had indicated in December 2018 that he was looking to end the agreement.
Photo: Reuters
However, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement that Canada had “been able to secure significant improvements to the contract.”
Canceling the deal “could have resulted in billions of dollars in damages to the government of Canada, with potential damages amounting to the full value of the contract,” Champagne said.
The move would have put thousands of Canadian jobs at risk, not only in “southwestern Ontario, but also across the entire defense industry supply chain, which includes hundreds of small and medium enterprises,” he said.
The vehicles are made in Canada by a subsidiary of US contractor General Dynamics.
Among the “improvements” were financial protections for Canada if it chooses to delay or deny export permits in the event the vehicles are not used for their stated purposes, Champagne said.
“Under our law, Canadian goods cannot be exported where there is a substantial risk that they would be used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law or serious acts of gender-based violence,” he said.
“We have now begun reviewing permit applications on a case-by-case basis,” Champagne said in the statement. “As always, we will ensure that they comply with the aforementioned legal requirements under Canadian law” and the UN Arms Trade Treaty, he said.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
RSS