The committee met to study Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy, hearing from five officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, the Department of National Defence, and the Canadian Armed Forces.
Weldon Epp, Assistant Deputy Minister for Indo-Pacific at Global Affairs Canada, said the strategy remains a five-year funded adaptive framework and that an update is under way, focused on accelerating trade diversification, building partnerships for economic resilience, and developing co-operation in energy, critical minerals, technology and defence production. He noted progress since 2022 including increased ministerial visits, new defence agreements with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, concluded negotiations on a Canada-Indonesia trade deal, and ongoing talks with ASEAN, the Philippines, Thailand and India. He said Canada's relationship with India has been rebuilt on two pillars of security and diplomacy, with negotiations launched on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, and that China remains an important commercial market while Canada maintains a refocused strategic partnership emphasizing pragmatic co-operation.
Inderjit Nijjar, Deputy Director General for International Security Policy at DND, said defence activities are an extension of the Indo-Pacific strategy's objectives, and highlighted capacity-building efforts including training nearly 1,000 personnel from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia since 2023, particularly in women, peace and security.
Darren Smith, Executive Director of the Indo-Pacific Trade Policy Division at Global Affairs Canada, said the trade co-operation framework arrangement with Taiwan is a modalities document setting out process and architecture, not a treaty, and that work with Taiwan has continued throughout 2025 and 2026 on supply chain issues and the global trading environment. He said the arrangement was negotiated and initialled but that the government is considering timing and next steps, and that there is more work ahead before it can be operationalized.
Colonel Jerome Patry, J35 Expeditionary, Future Operations at Canadian Joint Operations Command, said Operation Horizon has replaced previous deployments with episodic land, air, cyber, space and special operations forces activities to maintain a persistent and predictable presence in the region. He said Canada has moved from being mainly an observer in multinational exercises to being a main contributor, citing Exercise BALIKATAN where Canada will be the third international contributor by number of forces deployed.
Valérie Samaan, Director General for Indo-Pacific Strategy Planning, Policy and Operations at Global Affairs Canada, said the francophonie could be incorporated into a potential phase two of the strategy for 2028 to 2033, and noted that Canada has launched a bid to host the 2029 APEC summit.
During the meeting, members asked about the delay in signing the Taiwan trade arrangement, with officials saying no specific direction has been received from the government. On China, officials said the baseline assessment of China as an increasingly disruptive power has not changed, and that human rights and foreign interference concerns were raised during the Prime Minister's visit. On energy, officials said Canada's LNG and crude exports are in high demand in the region and that the government is working to reduce permitting times and engage private sector investment. On Bill C-251, an official said they had not personally seen an analysis of its potential impact on forced labour. The committee agreed to continue its study.
AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.