{"id":720787,"date":"2026-06-07T10:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720787\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:26:09","slug":"former-top-soldier-warns-against-pivot-to-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720787\/","title":{"rendered":"Former top soldier warns against pivot to China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gen. (Ret\u2019d) Wayne Eyre says Canada should \u2018be vary wary\u2019 of its relationship with China and Russia while pivoting away from reliance on the U.S. <\/p>\n

As this country seeks to diversify trade partners amid strained relations with the United States, a former top Canadian soldier is warning the Canadian government against pivoting to China at the expense of Ottawa\u2019s relationship with Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeography matters,\u201d said retired Gen. Wayne Eyre, former chief of the defence staff, said in an interview on CTV\u2019s Question Period airing Sunday. \u201cWe are neighbours and we share a continent and that\u2019s not going away.\u201d <\/p>\n

The former chief of the defence staff said despite the current political challenges with the U.S., he is a firm believer the two nations must continue to co-operate in the military realm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to pick up a phone and have a sensitive conversation, even if political relations are up and down, I believe is in the national interest, and so investing in relationships over the long term is a good investment,\u201d Eyre said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be very wary about pivoting to China at the expense of the U.S.,\u201d Eyre added. <\/p>\n

The former commander\u2019s comments follow the prime minister\u2019s visit to Beijing earlier this year, during which Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping \u201cforged\u201d a new bilateral strategic partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The agreement saw a softening in tit-for-tat tariffs but also outlined Carney\u2019s goal of increasing exports to China by 50 per cent by the end of the decade. <\/p>\n

Eyre says the government is \u201cabsolutely right\u201d to start diversifying Canada\u2019s network of friends, partners and allies in light of the rapidly changing global security environment, but he also highlighted Beijing\u2019s close relationship with Moscow as a particular area of concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen them drawn even closer together,\u201d Eyre told host Vassy Kapelos. \u201cChina is underpinning Russian war crimes in Ukraine through many dual-use technologies, even some single use technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be wary that that relationship continues to strengthen, including in the Arctic, which was traditionally a wedge issue between the two,\u201d he also said.<\/p>\n

In the weeks leading up to Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and China\u2019s Xi announced the Russia-China strategic partnership had \u201cno limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just last month, the two leaders met in Beijing, and Putin declared that relations between the two countries had \u201creached a truly unprecedented level.\u201d Xi stated bilateral relations had \u201creached a new milestone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to go into any future relationship with eyes wide open,\u201d Eyre said. \u201cTrading is one thing, but China is very good at integrating its elements of national power, its diplomacy, its information, its military and its economic tools to achieve national objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his wide-ranging conversation, the former top military commander also outlined the priority areas of investment as the Canadian government seeks to re-arm and revitalize the armed forces. <\/p>\n

You can watch former chief of the defence staff retired Gen. Wayne Eyre\u2019s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gen. (Ret\u2019d) Wayne Eyre says Canada should \u2018be vary wary\u2019 of its relationship with China and Russia while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-720787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}