Canada wants to expand its strategic military alliances beyond the traditional partners, says National Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
In a year-end interview with iPolitics, MacKay said Canada is looking to build stronger strategic partnerships with countries such as Kuwait and Qatar that are outside the “traditional circles.” Expanding relations outside NATO would enable Canada to put a “light footprint” in the region, he said.
“We’re not talking about setting up big full-time infrastructure, but having the ability, in some cases, to land aircraft, store equipment, to deploy in or through another country if need be,” McKay said. “So it has that very basic strategic interest and it also allows us to benefit from others experience and proximity. We’re constantly looking to share information with like-minded countries. There is a criteria to determining who those partners are — and some of it’s based on history, and some of it’s based on more recent history.”
Kuwait and Qatar are small, but strategically important countries in the Gulf region, both are wealthy and under less authoritarian rule than some of their neighbouring countries.
In a year-end interview with iPolitics, MacKay said Canada is looking to build stronger strategic partnerships with countries such as Kuwait and Qatar that are outside the “traditional circles.” Expanding relations outside NATO would enable Canada to put a “light footprint” in the region, he said.
“We’re not talking about setting up big full-time infrastructure, but having the ability, in some cases, to land aircraft, store equipment, to deploy in or through another country if need be,” McKay said. “So it has that very basic strategic interest and it also allows us to benefit from others experience and proximity. We’re constantly looking to share information with like-minded countries. There is a criteria to determining who those partners are — and some of it’s based on history, and some of it’s based on more recent history.”
Kuwait and Qatar are small, but strategically important countries in the Gulf region, both are wealthy and under less authoritarian rule than some of their neighbouring countries.