Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy
FINCAPES is a joint initiative undertaken by the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics and Faculty of Environment. For further information contact Jean Lowry 226-929-5616 jean.lowry@uwaterloo.ca or Bill Duggan 613-250-8652 bill.duggan@uwaterloo.ca. REGISTER HERE.
Date: Thursday April 13th, 2023
Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Location: DC 1302 (reception to follow in DC 1301)
Global importance of the Indo-Pacific region
The Indo-Pacific region will play a critical role in shaping Canada’s future over the next half-century. Encompassing 40 economies, over four billion people and $47.19 trillion in economic activity, it is the world’s fastest growing-region and home to six of Canada’s top 13 trading partners. The Indo-Pacific region represents significant opportunities for growing the economy here at home, as well as opportunities for Canadian workers and businesses for decades to come.
The Indo-Pacific is rapidly becoming the global centre of economic dynamism and strategic challenge. Every issue that matters to Canadians—including our national security, economic prosperity, respect for international law, democratic values, public health, protecting our environment, the rights of women and girls and human rights—will be shaped by the relationships Canada and its allies and partners have with Indo-Pacific countries. Our ability to maintain open skies, open trading systems and open societies, as well as to effectively address climate change, will depend in part on what happens over the next several decades in the Indo-Pacific region.
Guest Speaker – Audri Mukhopadhyay - Director of Southeast Asia and Oceanian Division 1-OSP Global Affairs Canada
Audri Mukhopadhyay is the Director of the Southeast Asia 1 Division at Global Affairs Canada (GAC). In this capacity, he leads a team with responsibilities for Canada’s diplomacy, trade, and development in Oceania and ASEAN island nations.
Audri has served in executive roles at GAC and its precursors since 2005. He has previously served as the Consul General of Canada in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2009-13). He has also previously held various executive positions at headquarters, with files including: South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, public service modernization, and strategic initiatives.
Prior to joining Global Affairs Canada, Audri served as the Government of Canada’s representative to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). He began his career as an economist with Finance Canada, and he has also worked for the private sector in Silicon Valley, California.
A Rhodes Scholar, Audri holds two degrees from Oxford University: an M.B.A. and an M.Phil in Economics, as well as a B.A. in Economics from Dalhousie University. He has presented guest lectures at universities in Canada, the United Kingdom, Hungary, and Vietnam. He speaks English, French, and Bengali. Audri was raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is married with two young children.
Host – Dr. Bessma Momani
Dr. Bessma Momani is Full Professor in the Department of Political Science and Assistant Vice-President of Research and International at the University of Waterloo. She is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States’ Institute in Washington, DC, and a Fulbright Scholar. She is a Governor on the board of the International Development Research Centre and an Executive member of the board of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
She was interim Associate Vice-President, Interdisciplinary and Sponsored Research 2021-2022, Assistant Vice-President, International Relations at the University of Waterloo in 2020, Assistant Vice-President, Research and International in the Office of Research in 2021, a 2015 fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, and was a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Mortara Center. Bessma is a Fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and sits on the Advisory Council to the Middle East Institute’s program on Economics and Energy. She also sits on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.