OTTAWA, 21 May 2024 – Senior Officials of ASEAN and Canada reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen ASEAN-Canada strategic partnership and deepen mutual beneficial cooperation. This commitment was made at the 21st ASEAN-Canada Dialogue held on 21 May in Ottawa, Canada.
The meeting exchanged views on the developments in ASEAN and in Canada and reviewed cooperation between both sides across the three pillars of the ASEAN Community. The Senior Officials took note of the positive progress made in the implementation of the ASEAN-Canada Plan of Action (POA) (2021-2025) and looked forward to the development of a new POA (2026-2030) to succeed the current POA with the aim to further substantiate the partnership and elevate it to greater heights.
The Senior Officials encouraged practical cooperation between ASEAN and Canada, including by building complementarities between the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.
The meeting further discussed ways to deepen the ASEAN-Canada cooperation in areas such as maritime cooperation, transnational crime, cyber security, trade and investment, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), digital transformation, sustainable development, renewable energy, food security, environment and climate change, women empowerment, people-to-people contacts, education, health, disaster management, connectivity, narrowing development gap, smart cities and infrastructure.
Both sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest and concern, including the importance of maintaining ASEAN’s Centrality in the evolving regional architecture.
The 21st ASEAN-Canada Dialogue was co-chaired by Dato’ Sri Amran Mohamed Zin, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia and SOM Leader of Malaysia and Weldon Epp, Assistant Deputy Minister for Asia Pacific of Global Affairs Canada and SOM Leader of Canada. Senior officials of ASEAN Member States or their representatives and the Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Political-Security Community were also in attendance. Timor-Leste attended the meeting as Observer.
