On July 31, the 15th Japan-Canada Military to Military (MM) Dialogue was held in Ottawa, Canada.
The Japanese delegation was led by Mr. MATSUO Tomoki, Deputy Director General, Bureau of Defense Policy, Ministry of Defense. The Canadian delegation was led by Major General Travis Morehen, Director General, International Security Policy of National Defence.
Amid Canada’s growing engagement in the Indo-Pacific region and the increasing importance of Japan-Canada cooperation in the region, both sides exchanged views on the regional situation and their respective defense policies, and discussed ways to further strengthen Japan-Canada defense cooperation and exchanges going forward.
Noah Note: Second one today. I will repost what I put earlier. We have to get out there if we want to build relationships. Regular meetings like this with a major ally will help with dialog, create more space for cooperation, and allow for timely discussions on topics. They also give us a place outside the multinational spaces like NATO to engage with other lesser partners on a consecutive basis.
So I always welcome these kinds of events, esepcially because the government side of things here tends to not really announce them, or even publicize them. With many of these neetings we often learn of details only after a foreign partner speaks on them, which means we lose out on really getting out and showing the work being done.
We leave very little for things like this in how we handle announcements and publicizing events, and to me that is a negative working against the conversation, a big one. You can't be upset if the public isnt aware of your work if you don't give timely, accurate resources for them to engage with. The average person will never see or hear of this stuff only because no one makes note of it.
So much falls through thr cracks, which is why I try to take extra care to get it out there. These are wins, even if small.