Canada will spend about $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 Secretary of State, Melanie Jolie, will publish the Trudeau government’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific region on Sunday.
The amount invested will increase the presence of the naval forces in the region, in addition to ensuring security in terms of intelligence and cybersecurity. Thus, the aim is to enable increased cooperation with regional partners in the East and South China Seas.
The secretary’s document also describes Beijing as an “increasingly destabilizing global power”. Canada would like to protect itself from all forms of foreign interference. It will invest C$750 million in sustainable infrastructure projects in hopes of attracting more capital from Canadian pension funds.
“As far as China is concerned, we know there is a battle for influence going on in the region,” Melanie Jolie said in an interview with Bloomberg. So we need to step up our presence.”
“We have defined ourselves for a long time by our relationship with Europe,” she added. It’s time to look at the Pacific Ocean.”
In recent years, Canada has had difficulty diversifying its economy, which relies mainly on the United States and China as two major partners.
According to Bloomberg, the proportion of merchandise exports has remained roughly the same since 1997 in the Indo-Pacific at a rate of nearly 7%, compared to just 8.6% for Beijing, last year.
