A high-level Canadian trade delegation will visit eastern Libya, Canada’s ambassador to Libya, Isabel Savard, was reported by the eastern based General Command of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces to have said yesterday.
The news emerged after Savard (and her accompanying delegation) met Khalifa Hafter, the commander of the eastern based armed forces, at his Benghazi military headquarters.
During the meeting, the General Command of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces reported, they discussed the latest developments on the Libyan scene, where the Canadian ambassador affirmed her country’s support for international efforts and the United Nations mission to push the political process towards holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya.
For his part, Hafter stressed the importance of Canada’s role in supporting efforts to resolve the Libyan crisis, stressing the need to strengthen cooperation in various fields, especially in the sectors of trade, economy, and education.
Business
Savard also expressed the readiness of Canadian companies to contribute to reconstruction projects in Libya and cooperation in the fields of oil and gas and indicated that efforts will be made to facilitate Libyan students’ access to scholarships in Canadian universities, in addition to working to facilitate the procedures for obtaining study visas.
Savard revealed that the upcoming visit of the high-level Canadian delegation will include businessmen, representatives of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and university presidents, to the eastern and southern regions of Libya, and the visit aims to explore investment opportunities in the fields of reconstruction and infrastructure, in addition to enhancing academic cooperation between Canadian and Libyan universities.
Analysis and comment
The anticipated arrival of the Canadian trade delegation continues a wider trend of international trade delegations visiting the Hafter family and eastern Libya. Only recently, both a British and a French trade delegation visited the region, for example. This queuing up to meet the Hafter family highlights the fact that while the international community only recognises the Tripoli based Libyan government politically, they are very happy to do business with Hafter.
Eastern Libya’s separate budget
It also recognises the fact that eastern Libya/Hafter has a separate budget to spend on the eastern region – a budget that internationals are keen to obtain a portion of.
Strengthening Hafter politically
Meanwhile, Hafter is very happy and keen to use this budget to illicit de facto and implicit political support from internationals of his eastern based regime. This gives – continues to give – Hafter a very strong hand at the political bargaining table – the UNSMIL-led political ‘‘process towards holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya’’ that ambassador Savard referred to.
Some Libya analysts see this trend of the normalisation of Hafter as a permanent and irreversible enshrining of the political split of Libya. It makes the holding of Libya-wide constitutional-based elections but a fantasy.
LBBC concludes productive Benghazi visit strengthening UK-Libya business collaboration
