The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada hosted Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, on February 3, 2025, for a discussion on the critical maritime challenges and strategic imperatives facing Canada in the 21st century. The Vice-Admiral delivered opening remarks before engaging in a conversation with APF Canada Vice-President Research & Strategy Vina Nadjibulla and taking questions from the audience.
In this encore Asia Pacific Conversations podcast presentation of this event, Vice-Admiral Topshee emphasizes the vital importance of maintaining a strong rules-based international order for Canada’s security and prosperity, how, in doing its part to uphold at order, Canada’s navy is now globally deployed, including to the Indo-Pacific – empowered by Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy, which has freed up resources to have a Canadian ship permanently deployed in the Indo-Pacific theatre.
Vice-Admiral Topshee also acknowledges serious questions about shortfalls in the physical capacity of Canada’s military, including the fact that Canada has only 12 frigates, all of which were commissioned for a 30-year lifespan in the 1990s but need to remain operational while Ottawa completes the construction of new ships, which are not expected to be finished until the early 2030s, at the earliest.
