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PM welcomes Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, to Ottawa
Good afternoon, Prime Minister.
On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, I’m delighted to welcome you to Canada and to our nation’s capital.
As you know, as we discussed earlier, the people of Japan graciously welcomed us to your country in 2008, 2010, and again in 2012.
And it’s a great pleasure to host you in return.
Our meeting today is a follow-up to the very good discussions we held at the G-8 Summit in Lough Erne in June.
I was also delighted to see you earlier this month at the G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg.
And we will have the opportunity to further develop the growing friendship between our countries next month, at the APEC Summit in Indonesia.
And I know, Prime Minister, that Laureen certainly has been looking forward to renewing the relationship with Akie that they established several years ago.
Let me begin today by congratulating you, Prime Minister, and all of Japan on Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 summer Olympic Games.
It is an immense honour, and I applaud all of the hard work that went into making it a reality.
Canada was fortunate to host the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver, and I was able to see firsthand so many people give so much of themselves to make the games a success.
And I can only wish you as much good fortune as we had in British Columbia.
Our countries enjoy close and enduring ties.
Our friendship is underpinned by shared values and goals.
These strong ties between Canada and Japan were clearly evident after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.
Canada responded quickly.
Our Government, as well as private citizens, businesses, and provincial governments rushed to help the affected areas.
The damage, as we all know, was very significant, and as I saw for myself when I visited the Sendai region in 2012.
So significant that the cleanup and recovery we know continue to this day, and Prime Minister, on behalf of all Canadians, I would like to take the opportunity to offer our sincere gratitude to you and to the people of Japan for your generous contribution to the cleanup of debris on our west coast.
It is in times of trouble that we see who our true friends are.
I believe that this friendship between Canada and Japan can serve as a model for others, and we continue to strengthen those ties, especially in the area of trade.
In 2012, our two countries took the first steps toward the Canada-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.
There have been three rounds of negotiations so far, and I’m told we’re making good progress.
Such an agreement would be a historic step in our relationship, and will help create jobs and long-term growth for both of our countries.
As well, Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership strengthens the value of those negotiations to Canada.
Canada and Japan are already strong trade and investment partners.
In fact, Japan is Canada’s fourth largest export market.
Merchandise trade between our countries totalled over $25 million in 2012.
In addition, Japan is Canada's largest foreign direct investment partner in Asia.
To further build on this longstanding relationship, today we announced that Canada and Japan have agreed to set up a mutual logistic support centre.
This cross-servicing agreement will expand cooperation between the Canadian Forces and the Japanese Forces and will further enhance our strong partnership in the area of peace and security.
We also discussed the need to strengthen our cooperation in energy, and our respective ministers will be following up on this directly.
Now, Prime Minister, the relationship, the partnership between Canada and Japan, we believe, is a model for the world to follow.
Your visit here is a testament to the strength of that partnership, a partnership that I personally and that I know Canadians generally greatly value.
So welcome to Canada.
