BY KARA SUNDBY
Canadians travelling to the United Arab Emirates will face substantially higher travel costs in 2011 following the Gulf nation’s decision to impose a costly visa on all Canadian citizens.
The visa requirement is the latest strike in the diplomatic tussle between the two nations. In October 2010, the UAE shut down a Canadian Forces air base in Dubai in retaliation after Canada refused to expand landing rights for the UAE’s flagship airlines.
The forced closure illustrates how the UAE is trying parlay its military assistance to Western nations into commercial gains. In the case of Canada, whose mission in Afghanistan is set to end in 2011, this tactic failed when the government chose to take a hit on defense rather than open its civil aviation market to more competition from the UAE.
“You play by our rules or you go home,” said Kirk Sundby, Lieutenant-Commander, Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon, 1 Canadian Field Hospital, describing the UAE position. “Canada resisted and that’s what [the UAE] did.”
The UAE has been steadily investing to become a major air travel hub, constructing state-of-the-art airports and ordering new aircraft fleets, including 43 of Airbus’ colossal double-decker A-380s, according to the Canadian wire service. All those aircraft need to secure landing slots.
Canada, which currently has 2830 troops deployed in Afghanistan, is not the only country at the Dubai air base pressured to expand Emirati landing rights. According to the Montreal Gazette, executives from Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways have cautioned that strong checks must be put on the Gulf carriers in the European Union, as European carriers could be destroyed by unrestricted competition.
In Canada, Emirates and Etihad Airlines each offer three flights per week to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. The UAE was requesting up to four more flights each per week. According to the Embassy of the UAE to Canada, the request for extra landing rights in Canada is justified.
“Six flights per week do not service the economic needs of both countries or the potential for growth,” said the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Canada in a press release. The same release detailed that there are approximately 25,000 Canadians living in the UAE, which is Canada’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and North Africa with bilateral trade figures of over CAD $1.5 billion (about USD $1.515 billion).
Given these numbers, a significant amount of Canadians will be affected by the new visa. Implemented on January 2, 2011, the requirement ends Canada’s affiliation to a group of 33 nations whose residents could obtain a free visa on arrival in the UAE. Canadians now face an application process of up to 15 working days and considerable fees – ranging from CAD $250 to CAD $1000 depending on trip duration and number of entries.
The visa fee also notably increases the cost of Canada’s decision to protect its aviation sector rather than facilitating its defense operations.
“What appears to be the case is that the defense department clashed with the transport department minister, and lost,” said Dr. Robert Bothwell, a specialist in post-1945 international and Canadian history at the University of Toronto. “It is obviously hugely inconvenient, but apart from uttering some alarming figures – thousands of jobs lost – the government has not mounted a coherent defense of its actions.”
The termination of the air base is estimated at CAD $300 million. Named ‘Camp Mirage,’ for being a secret – albeit an open one – base, it had been used to move troops and supplies into and out of Kandahar for more than nine years.
Military personnel and equipment bound for Afghanistan are currently being shuttled through makeshift operations in Germany and Cyprus, where operational costs are higher. Though Defense sources have yet to identify possible permanent alternatives, options could include another Gulf nation or one of the so-called ‘stans’ north of Afghanistan.
That the UAE did not charge Ottawa for the use of the area will make any alternative a significantly costlier one. In addition, the convenient proximity of Dubai to Kandahar will be difficult to replicate. Depending on the aircraft, Kandahar is a two to three hour journey from Dubai, compared to the seven to eight hour transit time from Germany.
“It’s also a routing thing,” said Lieutenant-Commander Sundby. “We can’t fly over Egypt, Iran and Iraq to get to Afghanistan. Even in Mirage we had to make a really circuitous route. Some days Saudi Arabia would allow us to fly over and some days not.”
Given a 30-day eviction notice, the Canadian flag at Camp Mirage was lowered on November 3, 2010 and the last Canadian Forces flight left the UAE two days later.
Canada has been engaged in Afghanistan since December 2001, part of 41 countries participating in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a NATO-led formation that operates in Afghanistan under the authority of the U.N.