Canada will spend some $2.3 billion in the Indo-Pacific region in an effort to increase military spending to strengthen ties with Asian partners and counter China’s influence.
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According to “Bloomberg”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, will publish the Trudeau government’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Sunday.
The amount invested will increase the presence of the Navy in the area, in addition to ensuring security in terms of intelligence and cybersecurity. The aim is thus to enable increased cooperation with regional partners in the East and South China Seas.
The minister’s document also describes Beijing as an “increasingly disruptive world power”. Canada wishes to protect itself against all forms of foreign interference. It will invest C$750 million in sustainable infrastructure projects in hopes of attracting further capital from Canadian pension funds.
“As far as China is concerned, we know that there is a battle for influence taking place in the region,” Mélanie Joly said in an interview with Bloomberg. So we need to step up our presence.”
“For a long time, we have defined ourselves through the relationship we have with Europe,” she added. It is time to look to the Pacific.”
In recent years, Canada has had difficulty diversifying its economy, which depends mainly on the United States and China as main partners.
According to Bloomberg, the proportion of merchandise exports has been roughly the same since 1997 in the Indo-Pacific region with a rate of nearly 7%, compared to 8.6% only for Beijing, in the last year.