Canada and Japan’s foreign ministers met face-to-face on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) meeting to announce defense cooperation to combat Chinese (communist) and North Korean military activities, and to reaffirm the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, pointing to Chinese (communist) military actions in the South China Sea.
A statement issued by Canada’s Global Affairs Department said Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimichi Motegi met and pledged to cooperate in six major areas of political, security and defense cooperation. The two countries will work to curb unilateral actions aimed at destabilizing the region, firmly based on the principles of international law and the international maritime order.
With North Korea’s recent spate of military operations, Ottawa and Tokyo plan to solidify U.N. sanctions against North Korea by cracking down on Pyongyang’s sanctions-busting activities, particularly maritime ship-to-ship transfers. Sajjan announced that Canada will extend Operation Neon for two years to deal with North Korea’s maritime sanctions.
As an important part of the practical action, Canada has continued to send warships and maritime surveillance aircraft to the Pacific Ocean since 2019 to enforce UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea. The two countries have also discussed their role in UN peacekeeping operations, relations with China, the military coup in Myanmar, international trade, climate change and the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Sajjan declared, “Power in the Indo-Pacific will continue to grow in the coming decades, and Canada and Japan have a strong and long-standing partnership and are already strengthening cooperation to promote shared interests in the Indo-Pacific region and ensure it remains free and open.”
David Welch, a professor of political science at the University of Waterloo who studies the Indo-Pacific region, said deepening cooperation between the two countries in the security field could help boost bilateral relations and explore other potential areas of cooperation. He said, “Although the two countries already have a very friendly relationship, there is still a lot of room for the relationship to grow.”
Welch added: “Despite differences in size and population, Canada and Japan have a lot in common in that they both want a rules-based liberal international order and are both high-income, highly developed liberal democracies. This, coupled with the fact that both countries are members of the Group of Seven, will enable further opportunities for cooperation.”
Rob Huebert, a defense expert at the University of Calgary, suggested that Canada needs to establish closer defense ties with all democracies in the Far East except Japan. He explained, “We have to start talking about security developments in the Indo-Pacific region in terms of dealing with the growing threat from China (the Communist Party) and creating a NATO-like (NATO) alliance. The right alliances make sense, not just limited to cooperation.”
Hubert also mentioned that the liberal democracies in the Indo-Pacific region include the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. He added that Canada and Japan have taken active steps to build greater military interaction. The Canadian Navy and Air Force regularly send warships and submarine trackers each year to participate in joint exercises with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and other major powers in the Indo-Pacific region.
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