The 14th Japan-Canada Political-Military (PM) Dialogue
Press Release + Noah Note
On July 31, the 14th Japan-Canada Political-Military (PM) Dialogue was held in Ottawa, Canada.
The Japanese delegation was led by Mr. YAMAMOTO Mondo, Deputy Director General, North American Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. MATSUO Tomoki, Deputy Director General, Bureau of Defense Policy, Ministry of Defense. The Canadian delegation was led by Mr. Eric Laporte, Acting Director General, International Security Policy and Strategic Affairs, Global Affairs Canada, Ms. Joya Donnelly, Director General, Northeast Asia, Global Affairs Canada, and Major General Travis Morehen, Director General for International Security Policy, Department of National Defence.
They exchanged views on a variety of issues, including Japan-Canada security and defense cooperation and regional situations. Building upon the elevation of the bilateral relationship to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the formulation of the Japan-Canada Comprehensive Strategic Roadmap, both of which were agreed upon at the Japan-Canada Summit in March, they concurred on further strengthening cooperation in implementing the roadmap in the area of security.
Noah Note: A very standard but still important meeting. The bulk of the achievable, from GCAP to agreements, are pushed through by meeting like these happening on the regular. These types of meetings are where the majority of agreements are pushed through the slogging, gritty process of alignment and ratification between both sides.
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.