Undisclosed Canada-Ukraine Defence Cooperation Agreement

During a take-note debate held in Parliament by the Trudeau government on March 20 on Operation UNIFIER, Canada's military mission in Ukraine, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan revealed publicly for the first time by a government minister that the government is on the verge of signing a new defence agreement with Ukraine. The agreement is widely reported as a measure to facilitate Canada's direct arming of Ukrainian forces and entry into Ukraine's defence industry. During this debate Conservative MP James Bezan asked if Canada will sign the Canada-Ukraine Defence Co-operation Agreement. Bezan explained that the aim of the undisclosed agreement goes "beyond what it is in Operation UNIFIER [The Canadian military training program in Ukraine, which was extended by two years on March 6 - TML Note] by expanding exchanges of officers and bringing their trainers here so they can get even more involved in the Canadian institution and the military culture we have here, which really is, in my opinion, the leader in the NATO nations. Something Ukraine, of course, aspires to is having NATO membership at some point in the future. Of course, they have to train to the standard. They have to make sure that they have that ability." In his reply Sajjan stated that, with regard to signing the Canada-Ukraine Defence Co-operation Agreement, "On the last trip [to Ukraine by Minister of Foreign Affairs Freeland and I on March 15], the defence co-operation agreement topic came up. In fact, we were actually able to move ahead, but there were a few questions on the Ukrainian government side, which we were waiting for. They have been resolved. Regrettably, it is now just a matter of getting the timing right, with my counterparts, to move ahead with the defence co-operation agreement. It is just a matter of time before we do that." That was that. It was an "oh, by the way" comment. The existence of negotiations for a Defence Cooperation Agreement was first revealed by Ukrainian ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko in June 2016.[1] According to reports, it would facilitate Canadian arms exports beyond so-called non-lethal aid, among other things. Then, on July 7, Shevchenko told CBC News, "We are in conversations with the Canadian government, and the good news is we have practically completed negotiations between our ministries of defence, and this should provide the legal framework for -- in the future -- closer co-operation between our two countries." On July 17, 2016 Canada's ambassador to Ukraine, Roman Waschuk tweeted in Ukrainian, "The Defence Cooperation Agreement is agreed upon and waiting for the visit of the Defence Ministers for their signature."[2] Then, in August 2016 Shevchenko declared, "We have completed our work on the agreement on cooperation in the defense field. This is a document that must be signed between the Ministries of Defense of Ukraine and Canada. I very much hope that we will be able to sign it in the coming months." Shevchenko said this meant the agreement would be signed in September or October but this did not take place. Since then Shevchenko has been interviewed by both iPolitics and The Canadian Press agitating for Canada to maintain its support for training the Ukrainian army for war, arguing that Canada has a duty to continue in light of doubt about what direction Trump is going to take the United States. Shevchenko even went so far as to declare that Canada is at war with Russia, something which the Canadian government has not officially responded to. "Our clear understanding of this moment is we are at war and we are on the same side. Sooner or later this is the reality we will have to accept and we will have to have very mature, strong and thoughtful conversations about the future. We have got to be together, not just because democracies should stay together, not just because good, right people should stay together. It's a matter of survival because we are facing a very existential threat," he said. According to Waschuk, the two countries are again on the verge of signing the agreement. On March 8, Waschuk again told Ukrainian state broadcaster UATV, "We have negotiated a defence cooperation arrangement. It's likely to be signed during a bilateral visit in the coming months. That, in turn, opens the door to the control list, and after that it will be up to defense industries, defence industry cooperation to define the right partnerships and for people to make decisions on export and export control." "There's a difference between what people have described as lethal aid, in other words, simply airlifters, some sort of things that go 'bang.' And a more structured approach to defense industries cooperation based on within an overall defence cooperation framework," Waschuk said. This suggests absurdly that a distinction can be made between offensive and defensive weapons. To supply weapons is to give the government in Kiev some kind of military option that it does not currently have, which it requires for the military offensive it is undertaking. The UATV host asked Waschuk, "This would be an integrated kind of system, which would see Ukraine get access to a larger field of more high-tech weapons?" Waschuk replied, "Certainly, technologies. Again, there is no arms embargo on Ukraine. It has a right to be an actor, in fact it is a top ten [Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)] weapons developer and exporter. And there is interest in many countries in helping develop that potential and working on projects. So, I think Canadians also would be interested in being part of that." Waschuk's statement is false. The Minsk Agreement signed by the heads of state of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, France and Germany in February 2015 stipulated a "Pullout of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, and also mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under OSCE supervision." The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution No. 2202 on February 17 and "called on all parties to fully implement the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements." Waschuk says that "Canadians" would be interested in being part of developing Ukraine's arms industry but Canadians have never been consulted on or informed about this Defence Cooperation Agreement. The monopoly media in Canada has not reported on the agreement nor demanded answers from Prime Minister Trudeau or his ministers about what the agreement consists of. Instead, the apparent agreement is treated as a private matter between the ambassadors of Canada and Ukraine, Ukrainian media and certain private organizations claiming to advocate for Ukrainian Canadians who are also calling for the agreement to be implemented. Not even during the March 6 announcement of the extension of Canada's military mission in Ukraine was it acknowledged. The only statements from Canadian officials on the agreement have been given to Ukrainian media. For instance, U.S.-based Ukrainian community newspaper The Ukrainian Weekly reported on March 10 that Jordan Owens, Press Secretary to Minister of Defence Sajjan, told the outlet, "This is the first step in moving towards adding Ukraine to the Automatic Firearms Country Control List," which would facilitate Canadian arms exports. The negotiation behind closed doors of an unacceptable scheme to further militarize the economy, embroil Canada in the war in Ukraine, militarize its economy, and war preparations against Russia, and the deliberate obscuring of these developments from Canadians must not be tolerated. Notes 1. Shevchenko worked as a journalist for multiple outlets, including the U.S. government-funded Voice of America, before receiving the Press Freedom Award from the U.S State Department-funded Reporters Without Borders in 2005. 2. Waschuk was appointed ambassador to Ukraine in October 2014, six months after a U.S.-backed coup. He was part of the research and consulting staff in the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada (Deschênes Commission) which covered up the role of the Canadian state in harbouring Nazi collaborators and war criminals following the Second World War. In July 2015, Waschuk, when confronted in an interview, confirmed that armed anti-government protestors entered Canada's embassy in Kiev on February 18, 2014 and used it as a hideout, during the U.S. and European Union-instigated coup against the elected government of Ukraine at that time ("Euromaidan"). Waschuk admitted that the protesters camped in the main lobby of the embassy for at least a week, something that the Harper government has never revealed. The Canadian embassy was closed on February 19 and remained closed throughout the events that culminated February 22 with the coup against Ukraine's former President Victor Yanukovych. The fact that numerous anti-government protestors in Kiev stayed in the Canadian embassy for seven days during this period exposed the Harper government as active participants in regime change, not just the providers of "shelter" as officially claimed at the time. The whole set of events constituted blatant interference in Ukraine's internal affairs by the Canadian Embassy and the Canadian government. See "Blatant Interference in Ukraine's Internal Affairs," George Allen, TML Weekly, July 18, 2015 -- No. 29. (TML Weekly No. 10, March 25, 2017)