Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada is set to become a major energy supplier for Japan and South Korea.
On a visit to both countries this week, Joly said she found a growing appetite for liquefied natural gas from Canada beyond a looming megaproject.
LNG Canada’s major export terminal is set to open in 2025 in Kitimat, B.C., with Japanese and Korean companies holding a 20 per cent stake.
“We will become a major supplier of key energy for them, starting in 2025,” Joly said in a Thursday interview from Seoul.
“There is a lot of interest for all of us to go even further.”
Joly said these types of projects will help Canada shore up energy security in the region, where China and Russia have been growing increasingly assertive.
“Japan and Korea were already very close to Canada, but it is now in Canada’s interest more than ever, that they be best of friends,” she said.
“We know that there’s a lot of instability in the world, and when that’s the case, Canada reaches out to the world to create more stability.''
Joly said a series of missiles that North Korea launched over Japan this month loomed large in her talks with local officials and the Canadian navy.
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