The COVID-19 crisis has provided a moment of clarity for many countries, including Canada and Japan, on the importance of greater cooperation between like-minded countries and reinforcing secure supply chains. Canada and Japan have long been key international partners, both bilaterally and multilaterally. The two countries are vibrant democracies that support open trade, investment and the rules-based international order. Now is the time to leverage this cooperation to work together more on combatting the pandemic.
This cooperation can take many different forms: such as through multilateral platforms, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and GAVI, the vaccine alliance partnership. Through these platforms, both Canada and Japan can continue working towards a mitigation of the virus and ideally and swift and safe implementation and distribution of vaccines. Japan and Canada also share the value of and need to defend the international rules-based order and promote free and open markets. In this regard, there has been some uptick in security cooperation between Canada and Japan over the past few years aimed at addressing regional security challenges in East Asia and beyond. In the COVID-19 era, this cooperation must be enhanced even more.
This webinar featured a conversation between His Excellency Ambassador of Japan to Canada Kawamura Yasuhisa and David Welch from Waterloo University, moderated by MLI Senior Fellow J. Berkshire Miller. They discussed the early lessons learned to build the Canada-Japan relationship and take it further in the COVID era.
Speakers
- His Excellency Ambassador of Japan to Canada Kawamura Yasuhisa
- Dr. David Welch, University Research Chair and Professor of Political Science, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo
- J. Berkshire Miller, Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute and Japan Institute of International Affairs (moderator)
