Declaration by the Joint Leaders of ASEAN and Canada on Enhancing ASEAN Connectivity and Resilience

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WeMember States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Canada met on October 10, 2024 in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, during the ASEAN-Canada Special Summit on Enhancing ASEAN Connectivity and Resilience, in support of the priorities of the ASEAN Chairmanship of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 2024;

Reminiscent the establishment of an ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership on September 6, 2023 and reaffirming our shared commitment to jointly address emerging challenges, including through cooperation in ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) ;

Stressed the importance of adhering to the key principles, shared values ​​and norms enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN), the ASEAN Charter, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and the Treaty of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS);

Recognize the long history of cooperation between ASEAN and Canada since the establishment of dialogue relations in 1977;

Noticing that both the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and the Canadian Indo-Pacific Strategy share relevant fundamental principles in promoting an ASEAN-centered, open, inclusive, transparent, resilient and rules-based regional architecture that adheres to international law maintains;

Recognize Canada’s support for ASEAN’s central position in the evolving regional architecture, which underlines Canada’s commitment to regional peace, security and prosperity and to ASEAN integration and the ASEAN community-building process;

Supportive this year’s ASEAN Chairmanship theme: “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience”;

Noticing that Canada, as president of the G7 in 2025, is strongly interested in ensuring that its presidency is informed by the positions of ASEAN member states;

We hereby declare our intention to:

  1. Expand cooperation through the ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership, which will pay special attention to digital cooperation between ASEAN and Canada in 2024-2025, and expanded Canadian commercial engagement in the ASEAN region.
  2. Build on the action plan to implement the Joint Declaration on Enhanced ASEAN-Canada Partnership (2021-2025) and in support of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and their strategic plans, as well as the implementation of the AOIP.

Connectivity

Collaboration on transformation for the digital future

  1. Strengthen digital cooperation between ASEAN and Canada, highlighting Canada’s interest in becoming a dialogue/development partner of the ADGSOM.

Cooperation in the field of integrating and connecting economies

  1. Strengthen economic ties by increasing trade and investment between ASEAN and Canada, including through Team Canada trade missions to the ASEAN region.
  2. Promote greater regional economic integration, development and resilience, including through the timely conclusion of an ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement (ACAFTA) and underlining our shared commitment to a rules-based multilateral trading system; and achieving fair, open and free markets, as well as sustainable and inclusive economic growth and development.
  3. Welcome the establishment of the Export Development Canada office in Jakarta, and the planned expansion to other countries in Southeast Asia, seeking to support Canadian companies doing business in Indonesia and other ASEAN markets through direct financing to Canadian exporters and investors, and supporting local buyers involved in projects with Canadian content.
  4. Welcome the establishment of the FinDev Canada office in Singapore, which will accelerate the deployment of the company’s equity, financing, blended finance and technical assistance solutions in the region, enabling sustainable development and inclusive growth through the private sector be made possible.

Resistance

Environmental cooperation

  1. Support ASEAN’s objectives to promote sustainable development, including strengthening resilience to climate risks, extreme floods and droughts, including through relevant ASEAN regional mechanisms, ASEAN centers and institutions.
  2. Advance payment ocean management initiatives in the region, in line with the ASEAN-Canada Action Plan, including supporting ocean and climate scientific research, promoting biodiversity protection and conservation initiatives, and monitoring and enforcement capacity.

Food security

  1. Advance payment technical cooperation through the sharing of best practices and capacity building in agricultural research and development and agri-food innovation in the agricultural sector to support long-term, reliable trade relationships and a stronger supply chain, as set out in the ASEAN-Canada Joint Leaders’ Declaration on strengthening food security and nutrition in response to crises.
  2. Welcome the establishment of Canada’s first Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Office in Manila, which aims to strengthen cooperation between ASEAN and Canada on food security and promote mutual trade objectives in the agricultural sector.
  3. Discover possible cooperation to promote responsible fishing practices and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Cooperation on ASEAN Centrality

  1. Promote maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded trade, mutual trust, the exercise of self-restraint, non-use of force or the threat to use force, and the resolution of disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS, the relevant standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization, and the relevant instruments and conventions of the International Maritime Organization.
  2. Expand cooperation in maintaining peace, security and stability, and addressing traditional and non-traditional security challenges in the region, including maritime security; transnational crime such as human trafficking, human smuggling, illicit precursors and drug trafficking; non-proliferation and disarmament; cyber security and cybercrime; international terrorism and violent extremism, with support from Canada’s capacity building efforts, including through the Anti-Crime and Counter-Terrorism Capacity Building Programs, and in accordance with the ASEAN Regional Forum and the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime.

Cooperation on Women’s Empowerment and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS)

  1. Connect strengthening efforts to advance the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda globally, including through sharing information and best practices, enhancing security-related cooperation in the context of WPS within the ASEAN-led mechanisms , and launching a regional WPS initiative; promoting the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations and regionally, the Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace initiative and collaboration with UN Women, involving CAD 8.5 million in support of ASEAN-led efforts to Promote WPS agenda in ASEAN, including support for the implementation and localization of the ASEAN Regional Action Plan on WPS.

Collaboration on health security initiatives

  1. Further promote health security and healthcare system resilience through continued support for the ASEAN-Canada Mitigation of Biological Threats (MBT) in the ASEAN Region Program, including supporting the development and operationalization of the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Biosafety and Biosecurity and the ASEAN Center for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED) and other collaboration to improve regional preparedness and response to future health crises.
  2. Further strengthen cooperation through the ASEAN-Canada MBT in the ASEAN Region Program to enhance capabilities to prevent, detect and respond to a variety of biological threats, whether of natural, accidental or intentional origin.

Cooperation in the field of disaster management

  1. Expand cooperation between ASEAN and Canada to support the implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) work program (2021-2025) and the next AADMER work program, and to strengthen cooperation with the ASEAN Humanitarian Coordination Center Disaster Management Assistance (AHA Center).

Cross-cutting issues

  1. Connect consolidate the ASEAN-Canada partnership and strategic engagement through more frequent and meaningful dialogues at different levels. We welcome Canada’s support for ASEAN-led mechanisms and note Canada’s interest in participating in the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), depending on the respective expansion processes of these mechanisms.
  2. Strengthen Canada’s support for ASEAN’s increased involvement in international and multilateral fora, including the UN, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the G20, and for Canada’s role as President of the G7 in 2025, to explore synergies and cooperation with ASEAN in the adoption of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and its strategic plans.
  3. Support ASEAN’s efforts to reduce development gaps, including through the implementation of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) Work Plan IV (2021-2025) and subsequent documents, as well as sub-regional frameworks in the ASEAN region, which would contribute to promoting sustainable and equitable development and inclusive growth across the ASEAN community by aligning sub-regional growth with ASEAN’s comprehensive development.
  4. Recognize the importance of further strengthening regional connectivity, including through support for the implementation of the ASEAN Connectivity Master Plan (MPAC) 2025 and its successor document and the ASEAN Connectivity Post-2025 Agenda, and promoting links and synergies with other relevant connectivity initiatives through ASEAN’s Connecting the Connectivities approach.
  5. While adopting this Joint Statement, we direct our relevant officials to implement the above-mentioned initiatives to complement the programs and objectives identified in the Action Plan to Implement the Joint Statement on Enhanced ASEAN-Canada Partnership (2021- 2025) and in the Joint Leaders’ Declaration on the ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership Based on Mutual Respect, Mutual Trust and Mutual Benefit. We reaffirm our commitment to our relationship as ASEAN and Canada begin negotiations on the next version of the ASEAN-Canada Action Plan (2026 – 2030).
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