Canada will send warships to the Indo-Pacific in two separate deployments this year, Defence Minister David McGuinty said on Wednesday, as the country deepens military cooperation with regional allies while also seeking closer trade ties with China.
Canadian naval vessels will arrive in the region in August and November for exercises and port calls in Japan, McGuinty said during a visit to Tokyo leading a defence trade delegation of 175 organizations and about 300 representatives.
Strengthening ties with Japan and other allies
“We are strengthening our presence here with Japan; with Korea; with the Philippines. But we’re also — with discipline — managing our relationship with China,” McGuinty said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Three agreements to pursue defence cooperation between Japanese and Canadian companies are scheduled to be signed on Thursday, according to a member of the delegation. The deals aim to bolster collaboration in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and cryptography.
“We’ve got a long relationship here, but we want to build on it more deeply, more widely,” McGuinty said. “Under the defense sphere we’re looking for high-end research, artificial intelligence, quantum, cryptography — where Canada and Japan both excel. We’re looking at engineering, design, maritime systems.”
Japan’s expanding defence sector
Japan is actively seeking partners to strengthen its defence industry and recently removed most restrictions on defence exports. It has already secured a deal with Australia for the sale of advanced Mogami-class frigates. Earlier this week, McGuinty toured one of those frigates at a Japanese naval base south of Tokyo.
The push to deepen defence ties with Japan comes as Canada seeks to diversify its defence and trade partnerships beyond North America, given a turbulent relationship with the United States since President Donald Trump returned to power.
Managing the U.S. relationship
Prime Minister Mark Carney has expressed a desire to reduce the proportion of Canada’s military budget spent on U.S. equipment, following Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and repeated suggestions that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state. Soon after being sworn in last year, Carney launched a review of Canada’s contract to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp.
“We’re managing our relationship in the United States. We’ve got a strong relationship,” McGuinty said, but added: “Obviously, things have changed.”
Interest in joint fighter jet program
McGuinty spoke favorably of the joint Japan-U.K.-Italy project to develop a next-generation fighter jet by 2035, known as the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), as an example of how smaller nations can collaborate. He said Canada was interested in GCAP and was seeking more information about it.
“We’re realizing that there’s a real opportunity here to do some good things together. We can pool our resources. And I think GCAP is a perfect illustration of that,” McGuinty said. “No one country really can do this alone anymore.”
