Canada’s military presence around the world is growing in intensity, with more ships to be deployed to the Indo-Pacific region in two big maritime missions this year. The move comes as part of a larger plan by the Government of Canada to strengthen Canada’s military and economic relationship with the other countries in the region.

The Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty told Bloomberg that Ottawa wants to strengthen ties with regional nations including Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, and is mindful of its intricate relations with China.

In August and November, naval vessels will be making their way to the area for exercises, including some key port visits to Japan. McGuinty led a huge delegation of some 300 representatives from 175 organizations representing defense trade on his current visit to Tokyo.

The visit was a successful one, with three defense cooperation agreements between Canadian and Japanese companies. Mutual knowledge in topics such as artificial intelligence, quantum cryptography and maritime engineering are some areas that McGuinty pointed out as areas that should be expanded upon.

Strategic Realignment and Force Modernization

This new push for defense relations outside North America coincides with Canada’s desire to build more stable international relations. Uncertainty over the U.S. Government since the victory of Donald Trump has led Ottawa to speed up the diversification of its military network in the last few years.

The Department of National Defence of Canada is actively looking for further engagement and cooperation with trusted partners such as the Government of Japan in the fields of high-end research and regional security.

At the same time, the Canadian defense supply chains are being massively transformed. Ottawa recently gave a $10-million contract to a Montreal-based company to sell radio stations with Canadian-made equipment to Poland as a step toward becoming more logistically independent.

In addition, the military is phasing out American-made reconnaissance aircraft and is looking to buy GlobalEye planes from the Swedish aerospace industry. These are all steps that reflect a major step in modernisation and a strong strategic partnership with the Japanese Ministry of Defense.