Canada and Taiwan signed a memorandum of understanding this month on sharing data regarding illegal fishing vessels, which could help the country track covert Chinese maritime activity, Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail reported yesterday.
The Dark Vessel Detection (DVD) technology uses satellites to locate and track vessels, sometimes called “dark ships,” that have turned off their automatic identification system (AIS) transponders, or location-transmitting devices, it said.
This is part of a “blossoming” relationship between the two sides, the newspaper said, despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations between them and Canada’s traditional caution about engaging on security matters with Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
In November, the Canadian government stationed a cybersecurity expert in Taipei to deepen cybersecurity cooperation between the two sides and respond to hacking and disinformation threats from China, the outlet said.
The agreement was brokered by Jim Nickel before he left his role as executive director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei last month, it reported.
Taiwan is Canada’s third international partner using the technology, after the Philippines and Ecuador, it said.
In a statement on X, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the country would provide Taiwan training and access to the DVD platform for two years.
The report quoted Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation, a Canadian think tank, who called the DVD program “one of the biggest success stories of Ottawa’s Indo-Pacific strategy.”
It is part of Canada’s attempts to expand its role and engagement in the region, it said.
“It is sold as something that deals with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, but it can also detect dark vessels that are engaged in all sorts of other activities, so anything from drug trafficking to undermining subsea cables and other kinds of infrastructure threats – grey zone tactics that China and other authoritarian actors are involved in,” Nadjibulla told the newspaper.
Vietnam and Indonesia have also expressed interest in the technology, Nadjibulla said.
China’s fishing fleet is the largest in the world and has been accused of illegal fishing, it said.
In June, the Coast Guard Administration said that in the first six months of the year it chased off 31 illegal fishing boats 111 times around just the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島).
This year has also seen several cases of Chinese vessels suspected of intentionally damaging submarine cables around Taiwan.
Both Taipei and Ottawa declined to comment on the prospect of Taipei using this to protect the territory’s Kinmen and Matsu Islands from coercive behavior by Chinese ships, the report said.
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Craig Macartney was quoted as saying that the collaboration “will help Taiwan better monitor maritime activity and vessel movements, including their own fleets, leading to more effective and targeted enforcement actions” against fishing misconduct.
Taiwan’s Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) was quoted as saying that the pact with Ottawa “highlights the shared commitment to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”
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