Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has signed new agreements on trade and defence cooperation with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Parliament Hill.
The trade deal is comprehensive, meaning it opens up trade in multiple industries with the world’s fourth most populous country.
Carney said the “game-changing” agreement is the first-ever bilateral trade pact signed with a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“Once it’s fully implemented, it means that over 95 per cent of the tariffs on Canada’s current exports to Indonesia will be reduced or eliminated,” he told reporters in Ottawa.
“They will all be at preferential rates, making our exports obviously far more competitive.”
The prime minister also announced a new defence cooperation agreement that will “deepen our collaboration on maritime security cyber defence, peacekeeping and military education.”
“This is critical for Canada as part of our Indo-Pacific strategy, and it sends a strong signal to the world that Canada and Indonesia are committed to working together for peace and stability in the region and beyond,” he said.
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Last November both countries announced they had finished trade negotiations that started in 2021.
Indonesia is looking to Canada for resources and for potential work on critical minerals and nuclear energy technology.
Indonesia’s population of 280 million people is younger than most, and the country has been trying to wean itself off the carbon economy as it copes with threats to its biodiversity.
Subianto says Canada is a “very responsible, mature, leading power of the West” but also one that has “great empathy for the concerns of the developing nations.”
Canada has increased its engagements with ASEAN in recent years on economic and security matters in a bid to boost its presence in the Indo-Pacific and counter China’s influence.
—Additional files by Global News
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