OTTAWA – Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is jetting off to Asia for a five-day trip to meet with major companies and discuss Ottawa’s hunger for attracting large investments into Canada’s defence-related sectors.
The meetings come as Canada looks to quickly ramp up non-U.S. exports, and will include talks with one of the two bidders on Canada’s major submarine procurement project.
Joly is meeting with officials from the Korean business conglomerate Hanwha, part of a trip lasting through Friday that includes stops in Seoul and Busan in South Korea, and later in Tokyo, Japan.
Her talks with government counterparts and industry are expected to cover a range of topics, including automotive and battery manufacturing, shipbuilding and mining.
It comes a month after Prime Minister Mark Carney sojourned to South Korea to visit a Hanwha submarine manufacturing facility, and weeks ahead of the anticipated release of Canada’s new defence industrial strategy.
Canada is searching for a supplier for up to 12 new submarines — a major, multibillion-dollar military procurement project to replace Canada’s Victoria class subs that will retire in the next decade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2025.
