I think the first distinction that has to be made is that Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy is a Canadian strategy. It was built with Canadian interests and geopolitical realities in mind, and with a focus on what Canada wants to do for our businesses, students and citizens with respect to the fastest-growing economy in the world.
While the pillars I outlined earlier—security, trade, people-to-people exchange, climate and diplomacy—vary a little from those of the U.S. strategy, I think it's important to underline that, through Canada's deployment of the Canadian Forces, through our naval and air force operations, we are doing more on the security piece by sending three frigates into the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and the East China Sea; more to monitor illegal ship-to-ship transfers towards North Korea; and more to disrupt and intercede illegal fishing, which is happening at an enormous scale in the north Pacific and in towards the central Pacific.
We're doing more than any other G7 country, or in fact any NATO country that is not called “the United States”. I think that comes as a surprise to a lot of Canadians, but it certainly comes as a very welcome initiative for our partners in the region—including the commander of the U.S. southern fleet, who operates the largest forward deployment naval operation on the planet out of Japan. Their gratitude and Japan's gratitude for our persistent and ongoing broadening and deepening of our military engagement in the region has been widely noted, and it has been extraordinarily well received.
That's just one of the ways in which we are putting action into the plan, and it's important. It's important for global trade in the region that the Taiwan Strait is maintained as international waters. You will have seen on the news, through the CBC and the Global News crews that were embedded with our navy and air force operations in the region, that people are taking notice. Our aircraft have been buzzed. Our frigates have been sidelined by a large naval presence from the Chinese. Therefore, I think when we're getting their attention by doing what we know is the right thing, it only doubles down and reaffirms the notion that we are doing the right thing by working with our partners in these multilateral exercises in the region.