Canada is to maintain its Indo-Pacific strategy, even if the country elects a new government later this year, and would remain a strong partner of Taiwan, Canada’s representative to Taipei said on Wednesday.
“My expectation is, Canada will, of course, continue with its Indo-Pacific strategy, and Taiwan’s place in that Indo-Pacific strategy will remain important,” said Jim Nickel, executive director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei.
“As described in the strategy itself now, we will continue with our strong partnership with Taiwan,” he said at a media event when asked about a potential change of government later this year and how that might affect his country’s relations with Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this month that he was stepping down as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
He would remain as prime minister in a caretaker capacity until the party selected a new leader.
The party’s nationwide process of choosing a new leader is expected to conclude on March 9, while Canada’s general elections are mandated to be held on or before Oct. 20.
The Canadian government’s Indo-Pacific strategy, released in November 2022, says that the nation would invest resources in deepening engagement with free and democratic partners in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan, and would oppose unilateral actions that threaten the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait.
“China is an increasingly disruptive global power,” the document says.
Canada would balance its approach to China with diversified investments in regional relationships, including working with Indo-Pacific partners to push back against any unilateral actions that threaten the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas, the document says.
It mentions Taiwan multiple times, saying that Canada would maintain its multifaceted engagement with Taiwan and would continue to foster economic and people-to-people ties with Taiwan while supporting Taiwan’s resilience.
Nickel on Wednesday said that Taiwan would be a good addition to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which it has applied to join.
Asked about Taiwan’s application to join the CPTPP, Nickel said that when Canada was CPTPP commission chair last year, there were “very good conversations about all the applicants to the CPTPP, including Taiwan.”
Canada is very pleased that Taiwan remains interested and committed to joining the regional trade bloc, Nickel said.
“Canada believes that Taiwan would make a very good addition to the CTPPP, given Taiwan’s commitment to rules-based trade, and of course, the high value that Taiwanese industry contributes to the global economy,” he said.
During an annual CPTPP summit in Vancouver in November last year, the members of the trade bloc failed to reach an agreement to initiate an accession process for Taiwan or China.
However, the CPTPP members decided to commence the initiation process for Costa Rica, which had applied in August 2022 to join the bloc, a year after Taiwan and China did.
China applied for CPTPP membership about a week earlier than Taiwan.
The CPTPP represents about 15 percent of the global economy.
It has 12 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the UK.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS