Trump's Mexico visit: policy shift, or publicity stunt?
Donald Trump's surprise visit to Mexico has many people scratching their heads — including Mexican journalists.
We talk to one of them, Pascal Beltran del Rio, the editorial director at the newspaper Excelsior, about how the man who has vowed to build a wall along Mexico's border will be received in the country.
"Given the rhetoric in the campaign, and given everything that Trump has said about Mexicans, I thought it was quite odd for him to be receiving Trump...it's hard to understand why the president would do this," del Rio says of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's decision to invite the Republican nominee to Mexico.
What will be the impact of Trump's visit on Pena Nieto, whose own popularity in the polls is low?
"This will not help him, that's for sure," del Rio says.
"I was expecting the president of Mexico to state clearly, 'we can't do anything about what the U.S. does on its side of the border, but that look, a wall isn't going to serve any purpose. If you want to build a wall, build it, but we aren't going to be paying for it, and we don't think it's a good idea to divide neighbours this way'."
'A more influential and powerful China isn't a good news story for Canada'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in China this week. Today, his finance minister Bill Morneau announced Canada will formally apply to join the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Investment Bank.
The government also secured a delay in new trade regulations that threatened to hurt Canadian canola exports to China.
So what do these developments signify about Trudeau's approach to China?
"The Prime Minister talked about a reset [in relations], and I think he's accomplished that," says The House's go-to Canada-China relations expert, former ambassador to China David Mulroney, now president of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto.
"It's getting us back into a conversation, resuming a conversation, and that's not a bad outcome."
But Mulroney isn't so optimistic about Canada's bid to join the AIIB.
"I still have reservations," he says. "Is China ready to host a major financial institution? My own sense is that it really isn't. China is unready from the point of view of transparency. It's a place where lawyers and journalists get put in jail, and it's got a very selective approach to international rules and regulations. It follows the ones that suit it.
"It's a country that should be raising question marks."
"The current China is a somewhat flawed creature," Mulroney adds.
"I don't think it does the standards of multilateral governance and financial institutions any good to have China hosting one at this point in time. I think we should be trying to hold China to higher standards."
Mulroney also talks with Chris about Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the best way for Canada to approach a complex bilateral relationship as a more assertive China seeks to make its mark on the world stage.
"A more influential and powerful China isn't a good news story for Canada, because they don't share our values and they are problematic in a lot of ways," he says.
"What this [trip] is, is a wake-up call that says we've got to get really serious about our diplomacy with China. We have to raise our game — this is the big leagues. It's fundamentally in our interest to get this right."
