01-14-2005, 02:23 AM
<span style='font-size:22pt;line-height:100%'> கனடிய பிரதமர் புலிகள் பகுதிக்கு செல்ல மாட்டார் என்று தற்போது செய்திகள் வெளியாகியுள்ளது.</span>
Martin off on another whirlwind international trip, from Sri Lanka to Beijing
Wed Jan 12, 4:01 PM ET
BRUCE CHEADLE
OTTAWA (CP) - Just after midnight Friday night, Prime Minister Paul Martin embarks on a whirlwind Asian tour that will take him from the tsunami-ravaged beaches of Thailand and Sri Lanka to the halls of political power in Beijing and the commercial hubs of Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Martin's frenetic agenda - five countries in nine days, including more than 48 hours flying time - is "all about re-energizing and re-animating relationships," a senior federal official said Wednesday. The prime minister, who conceded in year-end interviews last month that he may have tackled too many priorities during his first year on the job, shows no sign of slowing down.
Martin's wish list of diplomatic objectives is exhaustive and exhausting:
-Co-ordinating and rationalizing tsunami relief, including a check on whether the Canadian military's Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, is properly deployed.
-Ensuring equitable aid distribution in politically fraught northern Sri Lanka, where Tamils have been waging a 20-year independence fight.
-Reforming the United Nations (news - web sites), with an emphasis on a new "L-20" forum of emerging and established nations.
-Promoting a UN "responsibility to protect" doctrine of robust international engagement.
-Giving substance to the Kyoto accord on greenhouse gases, especially through technology partnerships.
-Enlisting international support to combat HIV (news - web sites)-AIDs.
-Advocating human rights - principally for faith-based groups and Tibetans in China.
-Opening China to Canadian investment and resource technology while pushing for a conclusion to the Doha round of talks at the World Trade Organization (news - web sites).
As one government official observed: "Essentially it's going to be quite a robust set of discussions."
Moreover, while this is not hailed as a trade mission after the fashion of former prime minister Jean Chretien's regular Team Canada excursions, "significant commercial deals" will be signed during the trip, said an official.
The trip to India, China and Japan was scheduled long before the devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26 forced Martin to amend his agenda.
He couldn't visit the region without paying personal respects on the ground to the victims and the legions of relief workers in Thailand and Sri Lanka, including Canadians. His officials stressed that his brief stopovers in tsunami affected zones won't clog the aid pipeline.
"We wouldn't be going if there was any possibility of us hindering that recovery effort," said one official.
[b]<span style='color:red'>Martin will not visit Tamil-held territory in Sri Lanka, but has set aside 25 minutes in Colombo to meet parliamentarians who support Tamil aspirations before sitting down with President Chandrika Kumaratunga to discuss aid distribution.
Once the official delegation departs the tsunami zone for New Delhi in northern India, Canadian diplomatic concerns will become less selfless and more trade oriented.
Almost three days are dedicated to Beijing and Hong Kong as Martin seeks to enhance Canada's relationship with the awakening Chinese economic giant.
China needs Canadian raw resources - indicated by China Minmetals Corp. negotiations to purchase mining giant Noranda Inc. - but Martin will be stressing opening China to investment by Canadian resource companies.
While resource exports to China are rising and will continue to do so, said an official, what gives Canada the advantage "is the expertise we have, rather than the product."
The United Steel Workers, representing more than 2,500 Noranda workers, issued a release Wednesday demanding that Martin seek assurances of job security in Canada before China Minmetals - a state-owned company - is allowed to buy Noranda.
Government officials suggested that's premature, given the state of negotiations. The prime minister is more concerned with broader Canadian access to the world's emerging economies.
By the conclusion of the Asia trip, his officials note, Martin will have visited the leaders of virtually all those emerging powers - from Brasilia to Beijing and New Delhi to Moscow.
Thanx: Yahoo News / Canadian Press</span>
Martin off on another whirlwind international trip, from Sri Lanka to Beijing
Wed Jan 12, 4:01 PM ET
BRUCE CHEADLE
OTTAWA (CP) - Just after midnight Friday night, Prime Minister Paul Martin embarks on a whirlwind Asian tour that will take him from the tsunami-ravaged beaches of Thailand and Sri Lanka to the halls of political power in Beijing and the commercial hubs of Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Martin's frenetic agenda - five countries in nine days, including more than 48 hours flying time - is "all about re-energizing and re-animating relationships," a senior federal official said Wednesday. The prime minister, who conceded in year-end interviews last month that he may have tackled too many priorities during his first year on the job, shows no sign of slowing down.
Martin's wish list of diplomatic objectives is exhaustive and exhausting:
-Co-ordinating and rationalizing tsunami relief, including a check on whether the Canadian military's Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, is properly deployed.
-Ensuring equitable aid distribution in politically fraught northern Sri Lanka, where Tamils have been waging a 20-year independence fight.
-Reforming the United Nations (news - web sites), with an emphasis on a new "L-20" forum of emerging and established nations.
-Promoting a UN "responsibility to protect" doctrine of robust international engagement.
-Giving substance to the Kyoto accord on greenhouse gases, especially through technology partnerships.
-Enlisting international support to combat HIV (news - web sites)-AIDs.
-Advocating human rights - principally for faith-based groups and Tibetans in China.
-Opening China to Canadian investment and resource technology while pushing for a conclusion to the Doha round of talks at the World Trade Organization (news - web sites).
As one government official observed: "Essentially it's going to be quite a robust set of discussions."
Moreover, while this is not hailed as a trade mission after the fashion of former prime minister Jean Chretien's regular Team Canada excursions, "significant commercial deals" will be signed during the trip, said an official.
The trip to India, China and Japan was scheduled long before the devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26 forced Martin to amend his agenda.
He couldn't visit the region without paying personal respects on the ground to the victims and the legions of relief workers in Thailand and Sri Lanka, including Canadians. His officials stressed that his brief stopovers in tsunami affected zones won't clog the aid pipeline.
"We wouldn't be going if there was any possibility of us hindering that recovery effort," said one official.
[b]<span style='color:red'>Martin will not visit Tamil-held territory in Sri Lanka, but has set aside 25 minutes in Colombo to meet parliamentarians who support Tamil aspirations before sitting down with President Chandrika Kumaratunga to discuss aid distribution.
Once the official delegation departs the tsunami zone for New Delhi in northern India, Canadian diplomatic concerns will become less selfless and more trade oriented.
Almost three days are dedicated to Beijing and Hong Kong as Martin seeks to enhance Canada's relationship with the awakening Chinese economic giant.
China needs Canadian raw resources - indicated by China Minmetals Corp. negotiations to purchase mining giant Noranda Inc. - but Martin will be stressing opening China to investment by Canadian resource companies.
While resource exports to China are rising and will continue to do so, said an official, what gives Canada the advantage "is the expertise we have, rather than the product."
The United Steel Workers, representing more than 2,500 Noranda workers, issued a release Wednesday demanding that Martin seek assurances of job security in Canada before China Minmetals - a state-owned company - is allowed to buy Noranda.
Government officials suggested that's premature, given the state of negotiations. The prime minister is more concerned with broader Canadian access to the world's emerging economies.
By the conclusion of the Asia trip, his officials note, Martin will have visited the leaders of virtually all those emerging powers - from Brasilia to Beijing and New Delhi to Moscow.
Thanx: Yahoo News / Canadian Press</span>
<span style='font-size:20pt;line-height:100%'>Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.</span>