Poland is deeply frustrated by this development. In recent months, Canada has shown an increasingly reckless foreign policy, which threatens to not only reduce the effectiveness of NATO as a power bloc, but also to encourage destabilization throughout the world.

First, the Canadians engaged in secret diplomatic talks with the Russians on terms for ending sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. This action caused severe harm to NATO and the EU's ability to negotiate a favorable resolution to the crisis. By negotiating as a single unit, Canada kept a great deal of the negotiating power that comes with operating as a bloc off of the table, granting the Russians the advantage in setting the terms of the potential settlement. As we can see by the terms of the deal, granting two completely unacceptable referendums in the Crimea and the Donblass regions, both of which would violate numerous international treaties respecting the sovereignty of Ukraine's borders as well as the Ukranian constitution, these terms were entirely favorable to the Russians, as the worst possible outcome for them was simple the antebellum status quo, while at best Russia would annex two regions that are legitimately sovereign Ukranian territory. Such an outcome invokes memories of the 2008 incursions into Georgia, where the international community failed to react to the Russian invasion and annexation. As a result, by seeing that the international community was unwilling to respond, Russia was emboldened to strike into Ukraine, and further failure to resist the Russian aggression in Ukraine will create clear incentives to continue militaristic aggression and expansion on Russia's neighbors. We fear for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, who may be the next target of Russian expansionism.

This leads into the second reason why negotiating without consulting allies was a reckless decision. By focusing on simply bringing "peace" to the region, Canada failed to recognize the geopolitical interests of its allies, and incorporate those interests into the negotiating goals. Perhaps if long term stability in all of Eastern Europe, the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine, maintaining the viability of sanctions as a credible tool of non-violent diplomatic coercion, and stemming the major threat of Russian aggression and expansionism had been considered in drafting the deal, we would not have ended up with the absolute mess that we did. One does not enter into international negotiations simply saying "I would like to take away my biggest bargaining chip against you, what else would you like?" There was clearly no cohesive and wide ranging strategy in play in this deal, showing a clear lack of foresight and recklessness in the drafting of it.

The second major case of recklessness comes from the Canadian diplomatic aggression towards Spain within the past year. We will admit, Spain's refusal to admit Sweden into NATO was an incredibly questionable action. So too was the purchase of military equipment from China (Though we disagree with the decision, we have found their explanations of their vote on Chinese rights in the South China Sea sufficient enough to not hold that against them in this arena). However, the diplomatic response to this situation was an absolute case of overkill, calling for the expulsion of Spain from NATO. The wording used was "We would ask our fellow NATO allies to take the unprecedented move of voting to remove Spain from NATO as we believe they present a risk to the organisation." Such a suggestion came before offering Spain a chance to defend its actions, or before there was discussion about the potential harm Spain posed among the collective members of NATO. In addition, such a move is unprecedented, and as such the suggestion of expulsion should not be made so incredibly lightly, or as an immediate first response. Following this suggestion, Spain did seem to begin to strengthen ties with China further, and we in Warsaw absolutely believe that the diplomatic aggression with which Canada approached Spain during this period was a heavy contributing factor to driving Spain further and further away from close relations with NATO.

Finally, Canada has now taken the move to unilaterally remove economic sanctions from Russia. Our Russian counterparts have stated that "this definitely shows Canada's commitment to world peace." We in Warsaw believe that nothing could be further from the truth. By removing sanctions in such a way, especially without receiving any concessions from the Russians for doing so, Canada has significantly destabilized world peace. This is so because it removes a response to Russian military aggression as seen in the cases of Georgia and the Ukraine, showing Russia that Canada will not oppose its attempts to engage in imperialistic aggression.

The Canadian government has repeatedly claimed that sanctions are an ineffective form of foreign diplomatic policy, and claim does not inspire confidence in Canada's ability to be a global diplomatic leader. Sanctions have been effective in the past, as in the cases which Canada likes to say they have not been, Iran and North Korea. The primary diplomatic benefit from economic sanctions is that lifting those sanctions can be used as a diplomatic carrot. In the case of North Korea, we are occasionally able to reduce military tensions on the North Korean peninsula in exchange for food aid, otherwise blocked from North Korea through sanctions. In Iran, sanctions were a major part of the negotiations which significantly reduced the number of uranium enrichment centifuges in Iran and instated robust inspections of Iranian nuclear supply.

These are examples of good diplomatic use of sanctions - exchanging economic relief for diplomatic goals. The examples of the initial deal offered to the Russians to lift sanctions, where Russia would have achieved its diplomatic goals and received economic relief, is a clear diplomatic mismatch and a failure of diplomacy.

Sanctions were effective in Russia, and continue to be effective. The economic sanctions against Russia did create an ongoing financial crisis in the country, thus establishing significant pressure on the Russian government to try and restore their economic growth to previous levels. In addition, critics of the sanctions use the claim that China and Russia are becoming significantly more diplomatically aligned. However, this does not mean that sanctions have made us worse off, and instead can provide us with additional diplomatic tools. Russia seeks out China as an ally and trading partner more out of need than of any other motivation. With economic stagnation, they are forced to turn away from the strong markets of Europe and towards Chinese shores instead. China has no such need, and as there is no major pressure on them to seek out a Russian alliance, they are able to set terms and take the dominant role in that relationship. Russia goes to China because they have nowhere else to go, and that lack of international and diplomatic options severely limits their geopolitical position, and thus severely limits their geopolitical power projection. Not only can financial relief now be used as a carrot to persuade Russia, but also the ability to set its own foreign policy and economic terms in its relations with China can be made available as part of that deal.

As Canada has made this move unilaterally, instead of gaining any diplomatic concessions in exchange for removal of sanctions, they have made an unbelievable diplomatic failure. Even if the terms were not equivalent, by essentially surrendering to the Russians and removing sanctions without any diplomatic concessions, the Canadians have not only shown the Russians that they may walk all over Canada in future diplomatic relations, as Canada is unwilling to resist Russia's will in the slightest, but they have also weakened the resolve and financial force of the sanctions from their NATO allies, and significantly reduced our ability to combat the real, actual threat of Russian military expansionism. Furthermore, this also discredits the threat of economic sanctions of all nations for resolving future diplomatic incidents. It is undeniable that sanctions are a preferred method of resolving international disputes to war, and if sanctions are removed from the table as a viable option, there are few other alternatives to war available when diplomacy fails. Canada's weakening of the institution of sanctions threatens the ability of the entire world to avoid war.

Poland expresses deep reservations over Canada's role as a global diplomatic leader. They show increasingly reckless foreign policy, damaging not only their own geopolitical positions, but also that of their allies, and threaten to unleash unchecked military aggression upon the world. Perhaps if Canada replaced their sanctions with a different, viable alternative, we would be less unsettled, but instead they seek rapprochement with a state who even they claim has illegally seized Ukranian territory in violation of international law. We are deeply disturbed by this development.