Ambassador of Canada to Nepal Cameron Mackay recently visited Nepal and held various diplomatic meetings with ministers and high-ranking officials. Ambassador Mackay spoke exclusively with The Himalayan Times on issues such as Canada and Nepal bilateral relations, contemporary global events and future prospects. Excerpts:
How is your visit going?
It's been a very successful visit so far and I'll say this is actually my fifth visit to Nepal. I first came to Nepal in 1992. I was a young man at that time. I visited for six weeks and explored Nepal through trekking, exploring the Annapurna circuit, Chitwan National Park, Kathmandu, and Pokhara. I came back in 2019 with my wife for a short visit. I was twice here in 2022 as ambassador and this is my third trip as Canada's ambassador to Nepal. It's been successful so far.
What was the purpose of your visit this time?
It's been too long since I've been here. I was here for the elections last year and then my teams have come to several occasions. Canada's Deputy ambassador was here with some other members of the team, very much human rights focus for that visit, including the launch of the human rights film festival last weekend.
I'm here now to launch the film festival and for several other events. The film festival on biodiversity conservation and climate action 2023 that we're supporting with the IUCN and the Nepal Tourism Board, and Nepal Department of Forest. We've also done a capacity building workshop for journalists and students of mass communication through KU and then a training seminar for women entrepreneurs in the green business or sustainable business sector. So those are some of the anchors of my meeting and beyond that I've been meeting government officials and stakeholders in the private sector and others in the diplomatic community.
What transformation have you observed since your visit to Nepal 30 years ago and after assuming the ambassadorial assignment to Nepal?
Nepal has changed tremendously since 1992 not only with respect to the government but also with the further development of democracy in Nepal. The 2015 constitution, tremendous development in the economy and a shift in the population/ I can see that the Kathmandu valley is much more populated than it was in 1992. Overall, Nepal has had tremendous forward progress in almost every aspect of development since I was first here.
How adversely has terrorism affected democratic countries like ours and what should be done to curb terrorism?
Well, I think national security is a priority for every government. It's important for democracies to work together to ensure our national security.
What are our potential areas to work on and how can both countries benefit from our collaborations?
I think Canada and Nepal have a long-standing partnership in diplomacy. We work together bilaterally and in multilateral organisations like the United Nations. We also work together on development partnership. Canada has been a long-standing development cooperation partner but our relationship should turn toward commercial engagement. I think there's more opportunity for us to trade and invest.
There are young Nepalese who are coming to Canada to study and then work, so that technically is an export of education services from Canada to Nepal and likewise young Canadians come here for travel and tourism and that's a tourism export from Nepal to Canada.
These services are important and growing, but our trade in goods remains relatively small. We have some trade in agricultural products and some manufactured products and handicrafts but there's opportunity to do more and I would like to see more investment going both ways. Now, the private sector decisions are for the private sector to make, but I think with the right foundation in place from the government we can absolutely see more investment going both ways.
How can Canada collaborate with Nepal on mega projects?
Canada and Canadian companies have very considerable expertise in hydropower and hydropower development, and also in other forms of infrastructure development, including highways, et cetera. I think if the government lays the right foundation to attract private sector investors, those investors will make the decision to come.
We've seen Canadian private sector investment in India increase very significantly in recent years, and I'd like to see more in Nepal. Canada is one of the popular destinations for Nepali students.
So how can both countries foster this cooperation?
Canada is a big country, but our population for the size of the country is relatively small, 40 million. But it's the second biggest territory on Earth. So we need more people. But the government is always adjusting our immigration and our visa policy to make sure that we're welcoming people from all over the world all the time, but in the right numbers and in the right way so that they can easily integrate into Canadian society and the Canadian economy. I think Nepal will play an important role in Canada's immigration policy in the future.
Similarly, in terms of fellowships, more of the fellowships in Canada come from private sector and individual universities as opposed to government. But one of the advantages of studying in Canada is the ability to work at the same time. So many students, even if they don't have a fellowship, may find it attractive to study and to work in Canada.
How have Canada and Nepal address climate change issues?
We share many of the same challenges. All countries do. With respect to climate change, I think we have a lot of challenges as climate change affects all of us. But we are each home to two of the three poles, basically. If you think of the Himalayas as the third pole, and Canada, of course, is an Arctic country. Canada and Nepal are both being disproportionately impacted by climate change and the melting of the ice caps in the Himalayan glacier fields. We have much more that we could do together to collaborate, including in science and research in that area.
How can events like COP help vulnerable countries like ours?
We are the most vulnerable country because our ice caps are going to melt. We don't see that impact very soon, but it will impact our future generations very adversely. I think one of the big important outcomes at COP in Dubai was the loss and damage fund. And I think we all saw that as a big success. Canada was a supporter in it. But it will take time. And it will probably never be sufficient to really deal with all of the mitigation and all of the adaptation that's needed globally to deal with climate change. It will be a helpful factor.
But frankly, every country also needs to really prioritise in every government policy how to deal with climate change. And that's a challenge for Canada and for Nepal.
What is Canada's take on the highly polarised world, particularly with the wars between Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Palestine?
We certainly need more peace. We can see in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza that we don't have enough peace. We're going to have to work together even better, I think multilaterally, to try to ensure peace going into the future. We're absolutely at an inflection point in global history now. And it's important for us that our political leaders make the right decisions to lay the foundation for peace in the future.
Do you think organisations like the UN, are playing good enough roles to establish peace in the world?
The UN is doing everything that it can to try to ensure peace in those two conflict zones. There are many other conflict zones around the world, as you know. But what the UN really needs is support from its members. I mean, the UN itself can only do so much. It's really important for the UN Security Council to function, for all the members of the UN General Assembly to play a role in laying the foundation for peace and in providing the support that UN officials need to help achieve that peace.
How damaging is misinformation and disinformation for democracy?
All democracies are facing a very serious challenge now with respect to misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation in terms of people who simply misunderstand what is true and what is not.
But disinformation in terms of certain parties who are actively promoting information that they know is false. This is a real danger to democracy. We're seeing this in democracies now with the rise of social media and all the positive benefits that come with social media, but also the downsides and the risks.
I think it's very important for governments, but particularly for citizens, to have their eyes wide open to the risks of misinformation and disinformation. We all need to expand our faculties for critical thinking. When we see something on our phone, ask yourself, where does this information come from? How true is it really? Should I be sharing this, or do I think this is somehow false?
