OTTAWA — Former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney gave a rare thumbs-up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday night, lauding his aggressive pursuit of free trade in Latin America.

"This is how you create jobs," Mulroney told a gathering of current and former diplomats and politicians at a speech celebrating the 20th anniversary of Canada's entry into the Organization of American States.

"This demonstrates to how Canadian interests can be served more efficiently by enlightened foreign policy."

Mulroney heaped praise on Harper's Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, and Peter Kent, the portfolio's junior minister responsible for Latin America.

Canada's trade with Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean has grown seven times to $46 billion since the late 1980s, said Mulroney.

Though Mulroney would hardly be prone to casting aspersions on any free trader, he has been critical of Harper in recent speeches for marginalizing the Department of Foreign Affairs and his diplomatic corps when making foreign policy.

Last month, Mulroney used another major speech, this time to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, to say prime minister's make a "mistake" if they don't take full advantage of the "brilliance and innovation" of Foreign Affairs and International Trade officials.

But Monday, Mulroney said Harper and Cannon have the same good working relationship as he enjoyed "where the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs are on all fours together with the great questions of foreign policy."

Mulroney did say he once told Harper "all prime ministers have to learn a little humility."

But any criticism Mulroney may have harboured for Harper appeared muted by his wholesale endorsement of Canada's aggressive pursuit of free trade in Latin American and the Caribbean, including a controversial deal with Colombia.

"I actually think trade and investment agreements with Canada make similar negotiations with the U.S. more palatable for many others in our hemisphere."

Mulroney also panned a proposed new organization of Caribbean and Latin American countries that would exclude Canada and the United States. At a recent summit of 30 countries, hosted by Mexico, the new club was pitched as an alternative to the OAS.

"New threats are on the horizon," Mulroney said of the proposed group. "With luck and good diplomacy, this development may be less threatening than it appears. If handled discreetly by the U.S. and Canada, this new organization is unlikely, certainly in a limited time frame, to acquire the infrastructure and specific mandates necessary to replace the OAS as the region' pre-eminent organization."