MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Speaking to TASS, Alexander Darchiyev, who heads the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North America Department branded Canada a stooge for working to bolster the position of the US in the Asia-Pacific zone, and joining Washington’s dangerous game against Russia and China.

The diplomat noted the Asia-Pacific, which the US seeks to remold into the so-called Indo-Pacific Region (IPR) under their control, Canada is obediently offering its services in deterring China and projecting NATO’s destructive potential.

"Ottawa is actively knocking on the doors of narrow-bloc projects, such as the US-UK-Australian AUKUS pact and QUAD pact, which consists of the United States, Japan, Australia and India," Darchiyev emphasized.

"They [Canada] are also eyeing the anti-China initiative dubbed ‘Partners in the Blue Pacific’ within the framework of the AUKUS Plus project," he continued. "Canada is a permanent participant of the Sea Dragon naval drills as well as in the conference of the Chiefs of Staff under the guise of the IPR."

"In this case, Canada’s actions in the given region are destructive and aim to strengthen the stance of the United States and NATO there in their standoff with China and Russia," the diplomat maintained. "This is a dangerous game in which Ottawa acts as a stooge," he insisted.

The diplomat deplored the fact that Canada has long since abandoned its independent foreign policy, which made it a prominent player on the world stage under legendary prime ministers such as Jean Chretien and Pierre Trudeau, father of Canada’s current PM Justin Trudeau.

"Back then as a mid-sized power, the Maple Leaf country could rightly claim to be a mediator in resolving a number of long-standing regional conflicts," he noted. "What we see now is that Ottawa has not only turned into a ‘yes man’ for its southern neighbor, but in many cases outperforms Washington in terms of Russophobic sentiments, and social and gender experiments, which are destructive to the basic foundations of normal human society, in addition to aggressively pushing the liberal-globalist paradigm with an emphasis on democratization."

Anita Anand, Canada’s defense chief, stated earlier that Ottawa was seeking to beef up its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region within the framework of its new strategy of actions in that part of the world.