Canada and the Republic of Korea (Korea) are building a stronger bilateral partnership. As directed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Yoon Suk Yeol in May 2023, we, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Canada and Korea, have agreed to an Action Plan to implement the Canada-Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). The Action Plan joins together the CSP with our Indo-Pacific strategies to build toward a stronger friendship. It expands on each thematic area of the CSP with aspirational initiatives to work toward together as partners in the Indo-Pacific and North Pacific. Keeping in mind the upcoming Korea's APEC Chairship and Canada's G7 Presidency in 2025, the Action Plan also provides a firm basis for our two countries to further enhance cooperation on global issues based on our CSP. A bilateral Strategic Dialogue between senior officials will review the implementation of the Action Plan on an annual basis.
The Action Plan builds on achievements in the CSP since September 2022, including a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation in Critical Mineral Supply Chains, the Clean Energy Transition and Energy Security, the launch of negotiations toward an agreement on the protection of classified military/defence information, a High-Level Economic Security Dialogue (2+2), Defense Materiel Cooperation MOU and Research & Development (R&D) MOU, our first bilateral Climate Change Dialogue and MOU on Climate Change Cooperation, bilateral meetings on foreign policy, development cooperation, and the Arctic, a new MOU concerning Youth Mobility, and reciprocal visits by President Yoon and Prime Minister Trudeau to Ottawa and Seoul, respectively, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
Pillar 1: Defending the Rules Based International System, Democracy, Freedom, Human Rights, and Gender Equality
Rules-Based International System
Protect and uphold the rules-based international system, including the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Democracy and Freedom
Support resilient democratic governance through cooperation within multilateral and regional intergovernmental organizations, like the UN and ASEAN, and partnerships and initiatives like the Summit for Democracy, the Freedom Online Coalition, the Media Freedom Coalition, and the Community of Democracies, among others.
Human Rights
Work together to actively promote and protect human rights obligations in the Indo-Pacific and around the world including in North Korea, and seek accountability for human rights violations.
Gender Equality
Create conditions that enable everyone, including women and girls, to participate meaningfully in the development of peaceful and prosperous societies. Work together, bilaterally and in multilateral spaces to promote and protect the rights of women and girls.
Initiatives: Jointly advance the objectives set out in the Global Declaration on Information Integrity; Jointly deepen our collective understanding of the legal, human rights, and international security dimensions of the practice of arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations; Annually hold the bilateral North Korean Human Rights Dialogue; Share relevant information through exchanges between the divisions responsible for disinformation; Explore bilateral discussions to enhance cooperation on the governance, norms and standards of AI and other emerging technologies; Strengthen cooperation on shared priorities in the polar regions (Arctic and Antarctic).
