Section: Macleans (Canada)
Trump: Brexit ‘a great thing’, NATO ‘obsolete’
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NEW YORK – Wading into foreign affairs days before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump said England’s decision to leave the European Union would “end up being a great thing” and predicted the bloc would continue to break apart. The incoming president, in an interview published Sunday, said European...
Ukraine envoy asks Canada to clarify length of mission
Canadian and Ukrainian servicemen talk during the opening ceremony of a joint military exercises in Lviv, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 14, 2015. Ukraine’s envoy says his country is growing concerned about whether Canada will continue its future military support to his country to help it deter Russian aggression. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Pavlo...
Which issues divide the U.S. and Russia? A quick guide
(Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images) MOSCOW – The Kremlin hopes that Donald Trump will move to improve badly strained Russia-U.S. ties once he takes office. Relations between Moscow and Washington are at their lowest point since the Cold War amid the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and other issues. It would be challenging to reach common ground on...
Trump’s pick for top diplomat takes tough line on Moscow
FILE – In this Friday, March 27, 2015 file photo, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson delivers remarks on the release of a report by the National Petroleum Council on oil drilling in the Arctic, in Washington. President-elect Donald Trump selected Tillerson to lead the State Department on Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)...
Canada won’t bargain with Russia on foreign minister travel ban
Chrystia Freeland. (Adrian Wyld/CP) OTTAWA — Canada is rebuffing the Kremlin’s thinly veiled overtures that it might be willing to lift a travel ban on new Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland if it eases sanctions on Russia. Joseph Pickerill, Freeland’s spokesman, says Canada isn’t interested in any bargaining on the...
The one problem with Justin Trudeau’s new team
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, middle, holds a press conference as he’s joined by his newly sworn in ministers on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Jan 10, 2017. (Sean Kilpatrick/CP) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top-tier team makeover on Tuesday adds and elevates a great deal of gravitas, fresh energy and intellectual heft...
Chrystia Freeland, a foreign minister for the Donald Trump era
Chrystia Freeland is sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Tuesday, Jan 10, 2017. (Sean Kilpatrick/CP) Call it the Trump pivot—or maybe, more accurately, the Trump double axle—as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle spins both towards and away from the temperamentally unpredictable...
Trump’s secretary of state pick calls Russia a ‘danger’
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) WASHINGTON — Arguing America must reassert its interests, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, tried on Wednesday to allay concerns that a Trump administration will pull back from the world or ignore threats from rivals. He said...
The sorrow of Barack Obama’s farewell address
President Barack Obama wipes his tears as he speaks at McCormick Place in Chicago, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, giving his presidential farewell address. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) I was going to start this column with a joke. How could I not? Just minutes before Barack Obama was about to give his last address as president of the United States,...
Will Freeland’s fractious relationship with Putin affect her new job?
Graham Hughes/CP OTTAWA – At a glance, Chrystia Freeland’s background in deconstructing the world’s super-wealthy and pugnaciously critiquing Russia’s president wouldn’t appear to be an ideal resume for the job as Canada’s top diplomat dealing with Donald Trump’s White House. But as the former journalist was...
