Trudeau suffers blow to security council dreams as India supports competitors

The Security Council vote, which is being held on Wednesday, is a culmination of a four-year-long campaign for Justin Trudeau's Liberals, entering the contest only months after Trudeau was first elected into office.

Despite Trudeau assuring the Indian prime minister that he would vote in favour of their country having a seat at the table, the support doesn't seem to be reciprocated.

Indian government officials explained to the Hindustan Times that Trudeau did not have a basic understanding of international diplomacy: "reciprocal arrangements [were] in place with Ireland and Norway even before Canada entered the UNSC race."

Both Ireland and Norway, for instance, have been running for the Security Council for more than a decade, contributing substantial aid and other support to UN missions.

Similarly, the two competitors have both committed troops to peacekeeping missions in Africa, whereas Canada has only had modest involvement—pulling out of a mission in Mali, West Africa earlier than the UN had been expecting.

Despite the inevitability of Trudeau's UN defeat, Canada has recently committed a great deal of money and political capital in an attempt to garner support.

The Trudeau government, for instance, has spent hundreds of millions courting countries in South America and Africa—promising to invest in education and infrastructure in the two continents.

If Canada were to win a seat, the country would also be expected to give hundreds of millions to the African Union to help the continent battle the pandemic, and to support their peacekeeping efforts in the troubled region.

This was confirmed through interviews with Trudeau's foreign affairs minister and his international development minister who argued that Canada's leadership is needed on the world stage, now more than ever.