Co-organized by the Seoul International Forum and CIGI, the Canada-Korea Forum meets annually to discuss key issues affecting the state of relations between Canada and Korea, as well as to provide insights and forward-looking advice to governments, businesses and other stakeholders involved in the relationship.
The Fifteenth Canada-Korea Forum took place in Vancouver in October 2017 and brought together a distinguished group of approximately 50 Koreans and Canadians drawn from the ranks of government (both active and retired officials), academia, the private sector and think tanks.
Participants discussed the challenges to the existing post-World War II system of the Liberal International Order (LIO), which is under threat from other models, losing relevance in Western and other countries, and failing to deliver the growth, security and other benefits intended of it. As democracies and trading nations that have benefited enormously from the LIO, Korea and Canada have a direct stake in maintaining it, and an obligation to show leadership and work with other like-minded countries to promote and defend it, and, where necessary, adapt it to today’s realities.
Sessions focused on the North Korean nuclear crisis; cyber security threats; the global trading system; the Fourth Industrial Revolution; climate change; and promoting the LIO. In each session, participants sought to determine the health of the LIO in that sector and to identify opportunities for advancing specific elements in their bilateral political, security and business relationships.
This report detailing the fifteenth forum’s discussion and main conclusions has been jointly prepared and approved for release by the co-chairs of the Canada-Korea Forum and former ambassadors Yim Sung-joon and CIGI Distinguished Fellow Leonard J. Edwards.
