Canada and Saudi Arabia

But to stop the analysis here and call for the cancelling of the deal fails to take into account the strategic rationale underlying the relationship with Saudi Arabia. [...] Canada has a vital Canada and Saudi Arabia: A deeply flawed but necessary partnership Page 2 by Thomas Juneau June, 2016 Canada and Saudi Arabia: A deeply flawed but necessary partnership interest in the stability of the global economy; it thus has a major stake in, and it benefits from, the fundamental bargain between the U. S. and Saudi Arabia. [...] As a result, its termination, because of the collapse of order in Saudi Arabia or of the emergence of a competitor regime instead of the Saudi family, would hurt Canada. [...] The Liberal government has justified its decision to uphold the deal by the need to respect an agreement reached under the previous government, claiming that not doing so would damage Canada’s credibility.14 This in itself is not sufficient; it would be possible and indeed rational for the new government to reject the deal if it assessed that costs exceeded benefits. [...] The decision for Canada then comes down to assessing whether the moral gain from cancelling the deal is worth the strategic and trade costs discussed here: an abstract moral benefit against concrete short-term material losses, the risk of losing longer-term opportunities, and the failure to support the flawed but necessary partnership with Saudi Arabia.