Former Canadian foreign minister John Baird has cautioned that Western nations, including the United States, have been “sleepwalking into a cold war” with China, a state he described as dangerous.
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Baird, who served from 2011 to 2015 under former Conservative Party prime minister Stephen Harper, has urged Canadian leaders to actively engage with Beijing in light of increasing uncertainty surrounding relations between Washington and Ottawa.
“I do worry that many Western countries, including the United States, were almost sleepwalking into a new cold war, and that is incredibly dangerous and incredibly counterproductive,” Baird said in a speech at the Centre on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong on Wednesday.
“Diplomacy is all about working with people you don’t necessarily always agree with,” Baird said, adding that it was “only through dialogues and a lot of diplomacy” that differences could be bridged.
“So, I’m the one who wants to see us [Canada] have a better relationship with China.”
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Baird’s speech came amid unprecedented challenges in Ottawa’s relationship with its southern neighbour.