Canada and the Indo-Pacific: Contributor, bystander or casualty? - Stephen R. Nagy

They include the December 9th, 2019, “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP): Enhancing Mid- dle Power Cooperation & Coordination” at the Canadian Embassy, the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Approaches to Investment and Infrastructure” held on April 15-16, 2019, by the Pacific Forum at the US Embassy, and the “Mari- time Issues in the Indo-Pacific: Building a Shared Vision of ‘Free and Open,’” hosted by. [...] The most critical sea lines of communication are located in the South and East China Seas (SCS and ECS) and the Indian Ocean; the potential for a major disruption in the import and export of goods and energy resources due to accidental or intentional conflict, a natural disaster, climate change, or other non-traditional security challenges means that the region requires multilateral institutions t. [...] Internationally, countries are concerned about China’s increasingly assertive behaviour along the Hi- malayan plateau, its refusal to recognize the Permanent Court of Arbitra- tion’s July 2016 decision rejecting China’s claims in the SCS, its building of and militarizing artificial islands in the SCS, and its grey zone operations in the SCS vis-à-vis the Philippines and in the ECS vis-à-vis Japan’. [...] Rule of law Enhance political, security, and defence cooperation to maintain and pro- mote the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region, including by working to- gether to address unilateral actions that undermine regional stability and the rules-based international maritime order based on international law, consistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and cooperation on the mul. [...] Peacekeeping operations, peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief Explore opportunities for further cooperation between Canada and Japan in the area of UN peacekeeping operations, including peacekeeping capacity building in the region, as well as in the areas of peacebuilding and human- itarian assistance and disaster relief, making the most of the Canada-Japan Acquisition and C.