Boris Johnson is best-placed to become the next ‘leader of the free world’ after Britain finally unshackles itself from the paralysing three-year Brexit saga, the former foreign minister of Canada has told MailOnline.
John Baird, who steered Canada’s foreign policy from 2011 to 2015, believes the Prime Minister can spearhead the Western push-back against Iran in light of an isolationist Donald Trump, a politically weakened Angela Merkel and an Emmanuel Macron distracted with domestic woes.
He said: ‘I think that never before has the world needed leadership from the UK and I think never before has the UK been in a better place to provide that leadership.’
He added: ‘This is a moment for Boris Johnson to lead the free world. Angela Merkel became leader of the free world ten years ago. I think Boris has the capacity to provide the Western leadership the world needs.
‘The US is becoming more inward-looking, it’s time for Britannia to rule the world.’
Boris Johnson is best-placed to become the next ‘leader of the free world’ after Britain finally unshackles itself from the paralysing three-year Brexit saga, the former foreign minister of Canada told MailOnline
John Baird (left), who steered Canada’s foreign policy from 2011 to 2015, believes the Prime Minister (right) can spearhead the Western push-back against Iran
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with MailOnline on a recent tour of the UK, Mr Baird said:
- A UK trade deal with the EU is ‘absolutely feasible’ within the 11-month timeframe;
- No two countries could reach a post-Brexit free trade agreement quicker than Britain and Canada;
- If Jeremy Corbyn won last month’s election, Canada would have cut intelligence sharing with the UK;
- He felt vindicated for closing down the Canadian embassy in Tehran in 2012, and urged Dominic Raab to consider the safety of his diplomats in Iran;
- The Iranian ambassador to the UK has lost all credibility for denying Tehran shot down the Ukrainian plane killing 176;
- Dead Iranian General Qassem Solemeini was ‘the biggest terrorist in the world’;
- Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau’s feud has soured the US and Canada’s relationship to its lowest point since ‘the war of 1812 when the UK and Canada burned down the White House’.
Casting an eye over an increasingly turbulent geopolitical landscape, Mr Baird concludes Mr Johnson, who has a ‘solid five-year mandate’ and hefty majority, should be the one to chart a way forward for Western allies.
Mapping out a blueprint of how the PM and allies can confront Iran, he said: ‘We need to confront them on the Vienna Convention, we need to confront them on their nuclear programme, we need to confront them on their terrible and abysmal human rights record and probably most imminently is their material support for terrorism every single place in the region and in other spots in the world.’
He also said that overcoming the Brexit hurdle – the UK is set to leave the EU on January 31 – will allow the PM to concentrate on other issues which were denied the oxygen of attention in recent years.
While Mr Johnson has insisted people will ‘stop talking about Brexit’, critics are sceptical of his ability to strike a trade deal before the end the transition period in December 2020.
But Mr Baird, who was foreign minister when Canada brokered its landmark free trade agreement with the EU, said it was ‘absolutely feasible’ for the UK to negotiate a deal with the bloc in the 11-month timetable.
Pointing to the PM’s vow not to extend the transition period, regardless of whether a deal had been agreed, he said: ‘I don’t think anyone in Brussels is going to debate whether Boris Johnson is bluffing. He means what he says and says what he means.’
And he also believes that Brexit affords a ‘huge opportunity’ for forging a deep trading relationship with Canada.
Boris Johnson meets with President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari during the UK-Africa Investment Summit at the Intercontinental Hotel today
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab lights a candle at Canada House, central London for the passengers of the Ukrainian International Airlines flight that crashed just minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, killing 176
Mr Baird branded dead Iranian general Qassem Soleimani (pictured on poster) ‘the biggest terrorist chief on the planet’
US-Canada relationship ‘at lowest point since war of 1812’
Trump and Trudeau at Nato conference
John Baird, who held senior roles in Stephen Harper’s Canadian government for almost a decade, despaired at how relations between the US and Canada has tanked.
Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau memorably clashed at last year’s Nato conference in London after the Canadian premier was caught on hot-mic gossiping about the President.
Mr Baird said: ‘The relationship is as probably as low as it’s been since the war of 1812 when the UK and Canada burned down the White House.
You couldn’t get a bunch of people more different. One’s a populist and one’s a progressive.’
It came as Mr Trudeau suggested the Ukrainian plane would not have been shot down if Mr Trump had not ignited tensions in the region.
The PM’s comments in the past two days aren’t going to strengthen it, they’re going to weaken it,’ he said.
He said: ‘We have so much in common. The current Liberal government is pro-free trade and there couldn’t be two countries who could come to a free trade deal quicker than Canada and the UK.’
But he warned that if Jeremy Corbyn had won last December’s election, Canada would have likely severed security ties with the UK.
Mr Baird said: If I was in government in Canada and Jeremy Corbyn was Prime Minister we’d have to suspend the UK from the Five Eyes… It would have made it impossible, if you’re dealing with terrorist organisations like Hamas and then this man’s here is going toe-to-toe with Hamas.’
In 2012, Mr Baird made waves around the world when he sensationally closed down the Canadian embassy in Tehran and expelled all Iranian diplomats from his country.
Following the arrest of the UK’s ambassador to Iran Rob Macaire – whose effigy was also burned in the street – Mr Baird has urged British foreign secretary Dominic Raab to think hard about the safety of his diplomats in the country.
‘I would say to him ‘do you feel confident your diplomats are safe in Tehran with this regime?’
‘We look at the situation after they ransacked your mission, and came to the conclusion ‘absolutely not’.’
He added: ‘When they’re burning you an effigy and they regularly ransack diplomatic compounds… I just don’t think you can trust these people to protect diplomats.’
Tensions in the region have flared up in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s assassination of the powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who Mr Baird branded ‘the biggest terrorist chief on the planet’ and the Iranian regime ‘the biggest terrorist organisation in the world’.
Canada lost 57 of its citizens when a Ukrainian airlines flight was shot down shortly after taking off from Tehran.
At first, the regime denied responsibility, but later admitted it had mistaken the plane for a cruise missile and reacted by firing at it with a rocket.
Iran’s man in London, Hamid Baeidinejad, flatly denied his country was responsible in a robust refute on British television.
Pro-Iran government protesters set fire to US and British flags with a life size cut-out of Britain’s ambassador to Tehran Rob Macaire
Reacting to this, Mr Baird said: ‘I saw on Sky News the Iranian ambassador to the UK admonishing journalists saying it was preposterous and ridiculous to think Iran could have done this.
‘What sort of credibility does this guy have in Whitehall or in the Foreign office?’
Mr Baird, who held senior roles in Stephen Harper’s Canadian government for almost a decade, despaired at how relations between the US and Canada has tanked.
Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau memorably clashed at last year’s Nato conference in London after the Canadian premier was caught on hot-mic gossiping about the President.
Mr Baird said: ‘The relationship is as probably as low as it’s been since the war of 1812 when the UK and Canada burned down the White House.
You couldn’t get a bunch of people more different. One’s a populist and one’s a progressive.’
It came as Mr Trudeau suggested the Ukrainian plane would not have been shot down if Mr Trump had not ignited tensions in the region.
The PM’s comments in the past two days aren’t going to strengthen it, they’re going to weaken it,’ he said.
Mr Baird was on a speaking tour of the UK with the Pinsker Centre think tank.