(Ottawa) Justin Trudeau offers his unconditional support for the major overhaul of defense policy taking place in Japan. The Prime Minister gave the assurance of this when he received his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, in Ottawa.
The Japanese leader made a whirlwind visit to Canada on Thursday as part of his tour of five capitals of the G7 countries. He is meeting his counterparts ahead of the meeting of the Group of Seven, which will be held next May in Hiroshima, a symbolic place if ever there was one.
He confirmed that he had not extracted any concrete commitment from his host in relation to the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which Japan is thirsty for, like others who are weaning themselves off gas from Russia (see capsule). He nevertheless spoke of a very positive interview with Justin Trudeau.
Prime Minister Kishida has nevertheless obtained from his Canadian interlocutor an unequivocal seal of approval for the drastic shift that is taking place in Japan in terms of defense – Tokyo plans to double its annual defense budget from approximately 1 % of its GDP to 2% by 2027.
PHOTO DAVE CHAN, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
” We welcome [la réforme] with a lot of positivity”, because “creating prosperity and peace for our citizens depends in part on investing in security infrastructure”, Prime Minister Trudeau said at a conference at the National Arts Center, a stone’s throw away. of the Parliament Buildings.
The world changed when Russia chose to invade a peaceful neighbor. Persistent threats from unstable and authoritarian states around the world will force us, unfortunately, to keep doing more.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
When it came time to comment on the matter, Prime Minister Kishida insisted that two warring states, China and North Korea, pose untenable threats to the stability and security of his country, and to the Indo-Pacific region as a whole.
And the Indo-Pacific region, he argued, is not immune to attempts like Russia’s to “unilaterally change the status quo”. He cited as an example the dozens of ballistic missile launches by North Korea, one of which fell back into the Sea of Japan last November.
In other words, it seems clear that Vladimir Putin has followers in the area. “Ukraine today could be Asia tomorrow”, warned Fumio Kishida in an interview with the washington post a few days ago.
The Japanese government approved in mid-December a radical revision of its defense doctrine in an attempt in particular to thwart Chinese military power, described by Tokyo as an “unprecedented strategic challenge” to its security.
After his visit to the Canadian capital, Fumio Kishida heads for Washington.
Energy supply
Japan, which along with South Korea has invested in the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, already has plans to expand the facility, which should start operations in 2025. The Canadian energy sector is also pushing in this direction. “There was no concrete commitment,” Prime Minister Kishida said after his working dinner with Justin Trudeau. On the other hand, the two men stressed that each will send a trade delegation to the other’s country. In the spring of 2023, the Japanese team will look for opportunities “in relation to carbon neutral vehicles and batteries”, said the Canadian Prime Minister.
With Agence France-Presse