U.S., Japanese, Indian and Australian Navies Participate in Malabar Joint Military Exercise
With the threat posed by the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, Canada has begun to focus on its Indo-Pacific strategy, starting the spring of 2021 with dialogue and negotiations with Indonesia on free trade negotiations and participating for the first Time in a joint Quad exercise in the Pacific.
The U.S., Japan, India and Australia held their annual Sea Dragon anti-submarine exercise in Guam on Jan. 12, with the goal of strengthening the joint warfare capabilities of specific military services in the region.
“Canada is a Pacific nation and participation in Sea Dragon is an opportunity to demonstrate our strength and endurance in the Indo-Pacific region,” said David Lavallee, public affairs officer for the First Canadian Air Division of the Canadian Armed Forces.
File photo: The U.S., India, Japan and Australia conduct the second phase of the Malabar maritime exercise.
Indian media also mentioned that the Indian government sees this development as an important step for Canada, with some Indian diplomatic sources saying that although Canada is not part of the four-nation alliance, it has revealed important political connotations.
Canada’s so-called Asia-Pacific orientation has mostly focused on China in the past, but with China’s economic and trade interests hiding a poisonous element that seriously threatens Canada’s national security, Canada has begun to adjust its policy toward China and is actively pursuing a new Indo-Pacific strategy.
In addition to military exercises, Canada also launched negotiations for a free trade agreement with Indonesia this month, with a statement issued by the federal Department of International Trade saying, “Indonesia is is Canada’s third largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, with more than $3.8 billion invested by Canadian companies in Indonesia by the end of 2019.”
At the Indo-Pacific Strategy Forum held by Canadian think tank Macdonald Laurier Institute (MLI) on Wednesday, BartÉdes, a researcher at the Canadian Asia-Pacific Foundation, said, “Canada is going to have deeper economic and trade cooperation not only with Indonesia in the FTA negotiations, but also with other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, which will give Canadian companies more options. “
The Macdonald Laurier Institute (MLI), a Canadian think tank, held a forum on Indo-Pacific strategy. (Web Screenshot)
Concerned about the consequences of the Chinese Communist Party’s use of economics to kidnap politics, participants argued that this has a significant impact on supply chains and that international allies should therefore see the Indo-Pacific region as a common front for strengthening trade and security ties to counter the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. Amitendu Pali, a senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, said, “The solution is cooperation, and we can see that Japan then and Australia have a lot of cooperation with India, and Canada has to step up its moves, and if it joins forces closely with other medium-sized countries, it can counter the Chinese Communist Party.”
Japanese Ambassador to Canada Kawamura Yasuhisa (Kawamura Yasuhisa) also said at the forum that the Epidemic era highlights the importance of cyber security, and cited the Canadian Intelligence Agency report that the theft of trade secrets and scientific and technological research is increasingly serious, although The Japanese Ambassador did not name which country, but the Canadian Intelligence Agency has repeatedly mentioned in different reports the increase in economic espionage activities of the Chinese Communist Party that affects national security and interests.
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