Canada’s China reset just got much harder
Even modest Canadian engagement with China may be judged less on its merits than on how it is interpreted in the U.S. within a framework designed to ‘wind down adversarial outside influence.’
Vina Nadjibulla
While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Vina Nadjibulla.
What Trump’s New National Security Strategy Means for Canada’s China Policy and Indo-Pacific Engagement
With the release of the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), the Trump administration has delivered a comprehensive articulation of how it sees America’s core interests, what it expects from allies, and how it plans to compete in a world defined by great-power rivalry and economic insecurity. Whatever one thinks of its ideological framing or tone, the document is strategically significant...
Indo-Pacific Forum 2025: Charting Canada’s Next Phase of Regional Engagement
The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada held its inaugural Indo-Pacific Forum in Ottawa on October 1- 2, 2025, nearly three years after the launch of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). The Forum brought together stakeholders from the Government of Canada, academics, think-tank experts, private-sector leaders, and policy researchers from across the Indo-Pacific to assess progress and offer actionable advice on how...
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Moment: What Carney’s First Trip Got Right
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first trip to the Indo-Pacific was deliberately ambitious. In just over a week, he spoke at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, joined APEC leaders in South Korea, made a bilateral stop in Singapore, held a rapid-fire series of pull-asides with key regional leaders, and held his first meeting as Prime Minister with Chinese President Xi...
Canada is right to re-engage India. And Canadians support that
Last Thanksgiving, Ottawa was expelling Indian diplomats; this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is in New Delhi. The contrast captures how far relations have come – and how fragile the progress remains. Ms. Anand’s visit, Canada’s first ministerial-level trip to India in two years, also signals that the diplomatic reset launched by prime ministers Mark Carney and Narendra Modi...
What the new Canada-Indonesia trade agreement means in practice
The signing of the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) last week is a significant boost to Canada’s economicdiversification agenda.
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy at Three: Presence, Partnerships, and the Next Turn
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) has passed the crucial three-year mark. On balance, the record thus far has been positive: Canada is more present, more visible, and more plugged into regional networks than at any time in recent memory. New offices have opened, ministerial and prime-ministerial travel has become routine, Team Canada trade missions are drawing large delegations, and the Canadian...
Pragmatism Over Wishful Thinking: Crafting a New China Strategy
Perhaps the strongest indication that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s UNGA meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang last week signalled a new era in bilateral relations was the Xinhua coverage. “China and Canada have been promoting the improvement and development of their bilateral relations in a practical and constructive manner, which has been widely welcomed by all sectors in both countries,”...
How Canada Can Meet the China Challenge in Critical Minerals
Canada’s critical minerals strategy needs to move past broad ambition to systematic, prioritized, and partnership-focused action. We need an approach that right-sizes the China challenge, adjusts to the evolving environment south of the border, embeds within a national industrial strategy, and updates our 2022 critical minerals strategy with targeted tools and deeper partnerships across the Indo-Pacific, Europe, North America, and...
At the Crossroads: India’s Relations with the U.S., China, and Russia
Over the past two decades, India-U.S. relations have made steady strides, buoyed by bipartisan support in both countries and thriving in areas such as trade, technology, and strategic convergence in the Indo-Pacific. Yet the bilateral partnership has suffered an unprecedented setback in recent months. Beginning August 27, Indian exports to the U.S. face a steep 50 per cent tariff, including...
Can China's New Economic Playbook Help it Weather U.S. Tariffs?
On March 11, China concluded its annual 'Two Sessions' — a pair of legislative and advisory meetings focused on Beijing's economic priorities for the year ahead. The slew of macroeconomic measures announced at those meetings are now taking on heightened significance amid the escalating U.S.–China trade war.
China, Russia Remain Close Despite Trump’s Efforts to Drive a Wedge
On April 2 — just before the U.S. announced sweeping new tariffs on much of the world — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded a three-day visit to Moscow, where he met with his counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two sides discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and other security flashpoints, including Iran’s nuclear program and the Korean...
Resetting Canada-India Relations: Navigating Security, Trade, and Strategic Opportunities in a Shifting Global Order
Canada-India relations sharply deteriorated in September 2023 when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau linked the murder of Canadian Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar to Indian state agents. The crisis deepened in October 2024 when Ottawa accused Indian diplomats of being complicit in criminal activities, including intimidation, extortion, and murder. New Delhi rejected these claims, labelling Canada a “safe haven” for...
How Escalating U.S.-China Competition Over Critical Minerals Impacts Canada
Over the last five years, competition over critical minerals has become a focal point of great-power rivalry — particularly between the United States and China. These strategic materials, including rare earth elements, are vital for producing the advanced technologies underpinning the green economy, defence industries, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. Given that the world is rapidly transitioning to cleaner energy...
Trump and the Asia Pacific: Five Key Questions Shaping 2025
Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency will loom large over the Indo-Pacific in 2025. The global economic and security orders are already under serious strain, and Trump’s inclination for trade wars, his skepticism of alliances, and a probable imposition of tariffs at levels not seen since the 1930s will intensify the role of international trade as a geopolitical battleground...
5 Things We Learned about Canada and Asia in 2024
In 2024, a record number of voters across Asia exercised their democratic rights and, in many cases, used the ballot box to punish incumbent governments they felt had fallen short. Ten regional democracies held presidential and/or parliamentary elections, including three of the largest — India, Indonesia, and Japan. If there was any common denominator among these votes, it was that...
Explainer: Democracy Under Pressure: Yoon's Failed Martial Law and South Korea's Political Turmoil
South Korea entered a sudden political crisis on December 3 when President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law — an unprecedented move for the mature liberal democracy. Although Yoon retracted martial law six hours later, following a unanimous rejection of the order by 190 members of the country’s National Assembly, the shockwaves continue to reverberate.
Russia-North Korea Security Pact Fuses Northeast Asian and European Security
A new and enhanced security partnership between Russia and North Korea marks a watershed moment in contemporary great power competition, effectively merging the Indo-Pacific and European security theatres and helping to solidify Japan and South Korea’s alignment – both with each other and with the U.S. and its other allies.