Japan ‘priority' as Canada eyes bigger Asian footprint, military chief says

Japan Times

17 hours ago

Instead of deploying more planes and warships to Asia, Canada's new government aims to expand its regional security footprint by increasing bilateral and multilateral military activities, particularly with Japan, the country's top military official told The Japan Times.
'I think we can expect an expansion of our presence, but not strictly in terms of ships or other major assets, it's about everything else,' Gen. Jennie Carignan, Canada's chief of the Defense Staff, said in an interview.
'With the launch of our Indo-Pacific strategy in 2022, and with our updated defense policy coming out last spring, we are starting to see a growing number of activities and exercises we could participate in with regional partners,' she said.
'So, my intent over the next few months is to consolidate what is happening and make sure that we nest our activities in an efficient way so we can tailor our approach depending on our partners' requests and the availability of our forces,' Carignan, the first female commander of Canada's armed forces, added.
A Pacific nation and member of both NATO and the 'Five Eyes' intelligence partnership, Canada has been gradually boosting defense ties with individual Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines in recent years.
The growing engagement has included air force and navy deployments, with Ottawa also stepping up participation in multilateral exercises and aiming to maintain a near-persistent naval presence in the region, despite its relatively small navy.
The new government in Ottawa also said Monday that it would aim to meet a NATO spending benchmark of 2% of the country's gross domestic product by the end of the current fiscal year in March, with Prime Minister Mark Carney saying that the era of the United States' dominance on the world stage is over.
Driving the Asia push are Ottawa's concerns about what it sees as growing challenges to the current world order. With maritime and territorial disputes intensifying in the Indo-Pacific, it is particularly worried about potential disruptions to critical maritime trade routes.
'We oppose unilateral positioning in the region because it is destabilizing and affects our capacity to freely access our various trade partners," Carignan said. 'Hence, our commitment to be present in the area, to allow for the international rules to be followed and ensure that freedom of navigation is exercised.'
Canada is one of a handful of countries that have openly challenged Beijing's position in the Taiwan Strait by having its navy sail through the waterway. It has also joined maritime operations in the South China Sea alongside others, including Japan, which Ottawa calls a 'priority partner.'
That defense partnership is undoubtedly expanding fast, including through ramped-up cooperation in the fields of space, cybersecurity, industry, special forces and maritime operations.
The Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec is accompanying the British aircraft carrier Prince of Wales to the region, where it will not only participate in Australia's Talisman Sabre, but also dock in Japan and participate in several drills this summer alongside the Maritime Self-Defense Force. It will then deploy to waters near the Korean Peninsula to help monitor U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.
Carignan also said that Japan has expressed 'much interest' in Arctic cooperation, including participating in 'Operation Nanook' — Canada's signature exercises for Arctic defense — amid growing concerns that Russia and China are boosting strategic cooperation in that region.
'We are exploring various opportunities to boost cooperation with our Japanese partners,' Carignan said, noting that in order to bring ties to the next level, the two sides hope to conclude negotiations on both an information-security and a defense-tech-transfer deal by the end of this year.
The first one, formally known as a 'security of information agreement,' will regulate how information will be shared, handled, stored and disposed of by the two sides, including on defense matters. While it does not itself authorize information exchanges or specify what information will be exchanged, it is a prerequisite for the military equipment and tech transfer deal.
The Royal Canadian Navy's Halifax-class frigate HMCS Calgary is moored at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in November 2018. |
REUTERS
'Negotiations have been ongoing for a little while, but now, with the new government in place, we should expect this to go forward in the near future,' Carignan said, adding that once the deals have been signed, 'there will be even more opportunities for various types of joint activities.'
These two pacts will be critical should the partners decide to deepen industrial cooperation, particularly as Canada is currently finalizing a defense-industrial strategy that Carignan said 'will set us up in a good place to interact with our various partners.'
Deepening collaboration with Japan in this area is 'definitely something that is highly prized from a Canadian perspective,' she added.
But the deals will also be important to launch talks on a visiting-forces deal that would facilitate reciprocal troop deployments.
Japan has already signed three visiting-forces pacts since 2022 — with Australia, Britain and the Philippines — and is finalizing another with France, while Ottawa finished negotiating a similar deal with Manila in March.
'This (visiting-forces agreement) could be one of the next steps we can undertake with our Japanese partners,' Carignan said. 'It will depend on both our own objectives and what Japan wants to achieve, but this is definitely something we would be open to consider.'
Such a deal would facilitate larger and more complex joint military activities on each other's territory, and possibly rotational troop deployments, something Ottawa is already considering with Manila.
Carignan hopes that the Status of Forces Agreement with the Philippines, which must still be ratified by Parliament, will allow Canada's military to expand its participation in exercises and cybersecurity training programs in the Southeast Asian country.
'Once we have such a formal agreement in place, it will allow us to have military personnel stationed there in a more permanent fashion,' the general said. 'This is required to establish a more formal and permanent relationship, which, in turn, will enable us to build a better partnership.'
Canada's military chief also sees potential opportunities via the AUKUS security pact between the United States, Britain and Australia.
Both Canada and Japan — along with New Zealand and South Korea — are being considered potential partners for 'advanced capabilities projects' under AUKUS Pillar II, and Carignan believes this could offer another chance for collaboration as Canada fields cutting-edge tech in areas such as quantum computing, space and underwater systems.
'These are exquisite technologies, so the more people you have contributing, the more you can develop those special capabilities quickly,' the commander said.
'It's a lot of work, and it's extremely complex in terms of who's got the technological lead in the various fields and who is going to contribute to what, but this is all part of the ongoing discussions,' Carignan added.