Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his way to Abu Dhabi, seeking more ties in fields like artificial intelligence with the United Arab Emirates just as the country stands accused of fuelling a genocide in Sudan.
Carney's visit to the UAE, the first by a sitting Canadian prime minister since 1983, is not set to include a press conference, and the Emirati hosts have barred media from the bilateral meetings that most countries make open to visiting foreign press during high-level visits.
This week's meetings are aimed at drumming up investment from Emirati sovereign wealth funds and the private sector, to help diversify Canada's economy in response to the U.S. trade war.
Yet the Emirates have come under mounting political pressure in recent weeks, as human-rights groups, a United Nations panel and Washington link the UAE with support for a Sudanese militia undertaking shocking ethnic violence — which the UAE denies.
Civil war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in April 2023. The paramilitary RSF succeeded the Janjaweed militia which undertook the first Darfur genocide between 2003 and 2005.
Both warring parties have blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, and the violence and hunger has created the world’s largest displacement crisis.
In January, the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said the RSF was committing a new genocide in the Darfur region, and sanctioned companies in the United Arab Emirates accused of providing arms to the militants with government support.
Canada has not joined the U.S. in declaring the situation to be a genocide.
In recent months, RSF members have posted gruesome social-media videos of them attacking ethnic groups, including mass shootings in hospital rooms. Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab says satellite that it says show pools of blood, suggesting mass killings at multiple sites.
Rights groups say they believe planes meant to carry humanitarian aid from the UAE to Sudan are regularly delivering weapons instead, pointing to the number of flights arriving in the region and the documented appearance of weaponry labelled with UAE shipment details, while gold continues being exported from Sudan to the UAE.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington is aware that a specific country had been supporting the RSF and said the unnamed country needs to stop doing so, in what was widely interpreted as a rebuke to the UAE.
Nicholas Coghlan, a former Canadian ambassador to Sudan, said he's been surprised to see the Carney government refusing to call out the UAE, in statements that instead call for all actors to not fuel the conflict.
Coghlan argued it would not cause a diplomatic row for Carney to publicly ask the UAE to respect an existing UN arms embargo on the Darfur region.
"There seems to be an excessive pussyfooting around, trying not to offend anybody," he said in an interview.
"The Emirates are a key player in this. It's simply undeniable — although they deny it — they are the principal and major backer of the RSF, who are the certainly the most culpable of the two parties."
The UAE Ambassador to Canada was not available for an interview, but his delegation wrote in a statement that it condemns violence by the RSF.
"We categorically reject any claims of providing any form of support to either warring party since the onset of the civil war," the embassy wrote.
While a UN panel of experts on Sudan has said there are "credible" reports of the UAE arming the RSF, the embassy argued the report "makes clear that there is no substantiated evidence that the UAE has provided any support to RSF, or has any involvement in the conflict."
The embassy further said that it follows global standards to track gold shipments and avoid fuelling conflict, which "have enabled us to earn the confidence of exporters from around the world."
Coghlan said Canada will hurt its reputation for defending the rules-based international order if it doesn't ask the UAE to respect the arms embargo, and seriously investigate claims from advocacy groups that Canadian arms are reaching Sudan through the UAE.
"Those who are watching Sudan will be watching the prime minister's visit carefully," he said. "This is hardly a breach of diplomatic protocol, to call on an ally to abide by a (UN) Security Council resolution."
He said the lack of global pressure has allowed the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces to create a cycle of violence, which risks engulfing neighbouring countries.
"If the squeeze had really been put on the UAE a year ago — before they had ramped up all of the arms sales — we would not have had the genocide that is, I would say, indisputably underway in Darfur," Coghlan said.
Carney is expected to meet Thursday and Friday with senior government and business officials before flying to South Africa for the G20 leaders' summit this weekend.
Global Affairs Canada's online country profile describes the UAE as having "a strong and diverse partnership" with Canada that touches on trade, "strengthening regional and global security" and poverty reduction in other countries, including for women and girls. The UAE was a primary partner in Canada's resettlement of Afghans after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
The wealthy oil state has focused on investments in green technology and fighting climate change, including through its massive sovereign wealth funds, which Global Affairs Canada says "have already deployed significant capital in Canada." Ottawa sees investment potential from UAE in sectors like energy, information technology, infrastructure and health care.
Canada exports arms, aerospace products, motor vehicles and vegetables to the UAE, while more than half of Canada's imports from the Emirates involve iron, steel and aluminum, or products made from those metals.
Canadian exports to the UAE have shifted in recent years, with the Emirates taking in large amounts of canola after China restricted imports of that crop from Canada between 2019 and 2021. Analysts believe much of the canola reaching UAE in recent years was re-exported to China.
Both Canada and the UAE say they seek to advance human rights globally, but each government interprets that concept differently. The UAE is a predominantly Muslim country that sees itself as pushing back against oppressive forms of Islam in other countries.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
