What to know
- Mark Carney briefly spoke Japanese during a joint announcement with Japan’s prime minister while visiting the country.
- Canada and Japan unveiled a new strategic partnership focused on defence cooperation, trade, energy and emerging technologies like AI.
- The agreement also includes new economic security and cyber dialogues, as well as cooperation on supply chains, critical minerals and liquefied natural gas exports.
Prime Minister Mark Carney showcased his Japanese skills during his ongoing visit to Japan.
The remarks happened while Carney was joined for a joint announcement with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who was visibly impressed with the spectacle.
Carney reportedly picked up some Japanese while living in the country 30 years ago while working for financial services company Goldman Sachs.
Carney in Japan
Carney’s visit marks the first bilateral visit between Canadian and Japanese leaders in almost ten years. During the speech, he highlighted the historic relationship between the two countries, even nodding to the recent Toronto Blue Jays acquisition of Japanese third-baseman Kazuma Okamoto.
Read More
“Canada and Japan have learned from each other as we’ve grown for over a century,” Carney said, adding that the countries are close economic, security and G-7 partners.
“Our countries patrol the Asian Pacific together. Two way trade is over $40 billion. Japan is one of Canada’s largest investors,” Carney continued. “Nearly three-quarters of the vehicles manufactured in Canada are made by Japanese companies, and over ten per cent of the food imported into Japan comes from Canada.”
“We do much, but we’re ready to do much more.”
During the press conference, the two prime ministers announced the new Canada-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Roadmap. The map details a strategy for cooperation between the two countries on enhanced security and defence, Arctic, environmental and climate issues, economic security, supply chains, technological resilience, trade, investment, energy security, food security, and people-to-people, academic, and cultural exchanges.
“This new partnership will deepen our economic and security relationship. It harnesses the scale of our ambitions, reflects the depth of our values, and positions Canada and Japan to seize enormous opportunities for both our peoples,” Carney said.
The partnership includes commitments to collaborate on more military training, coast guard exercises, and international emergency response, as well as the production of new artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, and promises to send trade delegations between the two countries to generate more business opportunities.
The two countries also agreed to launch new Canada-Japan dialogues on economic security and cyber policy, aimed at protecting supply chains and strengthening cooperation against cyber threats, while the roadmap also includes plans to cooperate on patrols and enforcement against illegal fishing in the North Pacific.
The partnership also aims to deepen cooperation on critical minerals, semiconductors, batteries and other emerging technologies seen as vital to global supply chains. Additionally, the leaders also came to an agreement to continue partnering on liquified natural gas, to provide more Canadian fuel to Japan.
The announcement comes amid rising geopolitical tensions and concerns about global energy supply.
