Justin Trudeau is putting the rebuilding of Canada’s international stature ahead of domestic imperatives by committing to attend four international summits in his first month in office.

But the new PM says he sees rebuilding respect for Canada on the world stage after a decade of neglect by the government of Stephen Harper as essential to the domestic agenda the Liberal party put forward during the federal election.

“Being engaged internationally is critical for creating economic growth, good-paying jobs for the middle-class, and broad-based prosperity for all Canadians,” he said in a statement.

Trudeau’s pledge to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in Paris from November 30 to December, has been well-flagged because of its domestic political implications. The new prime minister’s invitation to the provinces and federal opposition parties to send representatives with the Ottawa delegation is being touted as a reversal of both the Harper government’s refusal to seek working relationships with the collective provinces and the Conservatives’ ambivalence about the threat of climate change itself.

But Trudeau’s commitment to put in an appearance at three other summits between now and the Paris conference is an effort to demonstrate Canada’s renewed commitment to global multinational institutions.

He plans to attend the summit of the Group of 20 (G20) leading and middle powers to be held in Turkey late next week. This will be followed the week after by a quick flip around the world to the Philippines, which is playing host to this year’s summit of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Community forum. He then gets a few days respite before the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting being held this year in Malta. That summit runs until the start of the Paris climate change meeting.

While it is usual for heads of government to attend all four summits, it is not unusual for prime ministers and presidents to bow out because of pressing domestic issues. That Trudeau is choosing to attend all four gatherings in the first days of his administration — when he could legitimately send Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion in his place, will be a powerful message to the international community.

In recent months there have been numerous reports of Canada’s collapsing international reputation as a result of the Harper government’s narrowly-focused foreign policy and evident disdain for international institutions, especially the United Nations.

So there are very good reasons, for both domestic and foreign policy, for Trudeau to make the effort to attend all three summits this month along with the Paris meeting in December.

The G20 summit has both symbolic and real importance for Trudeau and Canada. The emotional pull is that one of the main creators of the G20 was Trudeau’s predecessor, Paul Martin.

Harper’s Commonwealth boycott became a prime example of a central failing of much of his foreign policy: If you don’t turn up, you don’t have a voice. Harper’s Commonwealth boycott became a prime example of a central failing of much of his foreign policy: If you don’t turn up, you don’t have a voice.

The real importance of the G20 is that its membership includes not only the industrialized major powers like the United States, Russia, and China, but also rising middle powers like South Korea, Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, Indonesia and South Africa. These are just the countries with which Canada needs to reinforce and increase its diplomatic, strategic and economic relationships as the global centres of power shift away from the North Atlantic. (The argument for Canadian realignment towards like-minded global middle powers has been set out forcefully and cogently by former PM Joe Clark in his book How We Lead.)

It is inevitable that an essential element in Canada’s broad foreign relations portfolio will be Asia. To that end, the APEC summit in the Philippines is an important stage. That importance is heightened because of the uncertain fate of the 12-national Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement, which includes Canada. TPP negotiations have been concluded, but there are serious doubts whether the pact will be ratified by the United States Congress. And without the U.S. signing on, the TPP will not go forward in its current form.

So APEC assumes extra importance this year as a forum where Pacific Rim allies can explore not only economic but also strategic, diplomatic, cultural and academic joint initiatives.

One of the founders of APEC, Australia’s former foreign minister Gareth Evans, once described the organization as “four adjectives in search of a noun.” Since its founding in 1989, APEC has never found its noun, and in many years its utility has seemed to wither. A classic justification for APEC’s continued existence has been the minimalist one that it at least requires world leaders to think and talk about Asia at least one week out of the year.

But in recent years APEC has got its second wind. It has spun off a host of working groups delving into ways and means to regulate and facilitate diplomatic, security, trade and investment relations around the Pacific Rim. These groups are incredibly boring to describe and even more soporific to read about, but they are important. Canada already has a central role in this machinery and it needs to have its political support reaffirmed.

There are good reasons for Trudeau to also attend the Commonwealth summit, CHOGM. Not least of these is that it will give the new PM an early opportunity to see Canada’s Head of State, the Queen, who is head of the Commonwealth.

But there is also a very political signal to be gained from attending CHOGM. Harper boycotted the last CHOGM, which was held in Sri Lank. Harper’s justification was that he didn’t want to give credibility to a government accused of crimes against humanity in the closing days of the long-running civil war against ethnic Tamil separatists.

In reality, Harper was trying to win support from immigrant Tamil exiles, most of whom live in suburban Toronto.

But Harper’s boycott became a prime example of a central failing of much of his foreign policy: If you don’t turn up, you don’t have a voice. British Prime Minister David Cameron was just as contemptuous as Harper of the human rights record of the Sri Lankan government. But Cameron went to the CHOGM, and then insisted on travelling to the Tamil region of northern Sri Lanka and talking loudly about the failings of the Colombo government.

Plans can always be overtaken by unforeseen events. But Trudeau’s commitment to attend all four summits is an important message to the international community that he intends to make fundamental changes in Canada’s relationship with the world.

Jonathan Manthorpe is the author of “Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan,” published by Palgrave-Macmillan. He has been a foreign correspondent and international affairs columnist for nearly 40 years. He was European bureau chief for the Toronto Star and then Southam News in the late 1970s and the 1980s. In 1989 he was appointed Africa correspondent by Southam News and in 1993 was posted to Hong Kong to cover Asia. For the last few years he has been based in Vancouver, writing international affairs columns for what is now the Postmedia Group. He left the group last year and now writes for a range of newspapers and websites. [email protected]

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.