Asia Events

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada will be hosting a closed-door roundtable, held under the Chatham House Rule, on February 5, 2026, on the margins of the Singapore Airshow.

The Future of Defence (Industrial) Co-operation: Singapore and Canada roundtable will explore how Singapore and Canada can deepen defence industrial collaboration across dual-use technologies, innovation platforms, and more resilient supply chains.

The discussion will highlight the benefits of two-way market access: Canada as a reliable partner and springboard into the North American market and NATO, and Singapore as a stable hub for Canadian firms in Southeast Asia. This curated group of participants will also probe opportunities for collaboration around shared platforms, systems, and interoperability in areas including decision dominance, sovereign compute, maritime domain awareness, undersea autonomy, and training and simulation, among others. The roundtable will aim to build on the already strong bilateral relationship and the foundation provided by the 2022 Memorandum of Understanding on defence co-operation.

This high-level session will bring together senior representatives from Canadian industry, key government stakeholders, and Singapore-based defence and technology leaders to exchange perspectives on advancing bilateral engagement. Your insights would be especially valued as Singapore and Canada explore new opportunities to develop resilient, interoperable, and forward-looking partnerships. 

The discussion is intended to foster candid, solution-oriented dialogue on strategic co-operation models, innovation ecosystems, and practical pathways for strengthening engagement between like-minded partners.

APF Canada is hosting the Connecting Policy, Business & People: Digital Finance and Market Readiness for Inclusive MSMEs workshop aimed at policy actors and business leaders in the APEC region. Held alongside the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) I meeting, this workshop will feature a fireside chat between H.E. Maman Abdurrahman, Minister of MSMEs in Indonesia and ABAC member Mr. Anindya N. Bakrie.

Representatives from various ministries, the Embassy of Canada, APF Canada, and ABAC members will participate in panel and roundtable discussions on digital finance and regional value chains. The event will serve as a strategic platform to engage public- and private-sector leaders in advancing gender-responsive and inclusive MSME policymaking.

The panel discussion, moderated by Vina Nadjibulla, Vice-President Research & Strategy at APF Canada, will examine how APEC economies can bridge the gap between a strong regulatory framework and the lived realities of women-led MSMEs by leveraging data governance, digital payments, and gender-responsive financing models.

The roundtable discussion, moderated by Jan De Silva, ABAC Canada Member, will focus on how APEC economies can address digital readiness, capability gaps, and regulatory complexity to strengthen women-led MSME participation in domestic and regional supply chains.

The Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council (ABLAC) is a high-level group of Asian and Canadian business leaders established by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in 2016. 

ABLAC will meet February 9, 2026, in Singapore.

Convened annually to identify and articulate opportunities for improved Canada-Asia business engagement, the Council acts as a powerful platform for networking and business development to help catalyze stronger commercial and investment opportunities between Canada and Asia. ABLAC also aims to provide strategic information, counsel, and advice to Canadian stakeholders including representatives from the federal and provincial governments to strengthen Canada's strategic engagement with the Indo-Pacific.

This is a ‘by-invitation-only’ event.

APF Canada's Canada-in-Asia Conference 2026 (CIAC2026) is the premier platform for connecting leaders from across Canada and Asia to tackle some of the most pressing challenges – and promising opportunities – of our time.

Taking place at the intersection of business, government, research, and innovation, this unique gathering brings together stakeholders to drive collaboration, unlock partnerships, and shape the future of Canada-Asia engagement to address real-world issues. ​

 Join us for this flagship event on February 10-11, 2026, in Singapore where we will connect leaders from across Canada and Asia around the central pillars of food security, energy security, and infrastructure.

These pillars are critical for the global push towards sustainable growth and represent key areas in which Canadian and Asian companies, institutions, and universities can share experiences, expertise, and insights to build successful, multi-dimensional partnerships.

In conjunction with these pillars, CIAC2026 will address issues within the cross-cutting themes of geopolitics, investment, and technology.  

China has entered a period of structural adjustment marked by tighter political control, uneven economic recovery, and a more contested external environment. Domestic governance priorities—regime security, self-reliance, and social stability—have become increasingly intertwined with intensifying U.S.–China strategic competition, particularly under a second Trump administration. Renewed trade and technology restrictions have reinforced Beijing’s security-first orientation, with implications that extend well beyond China’s borders.

For Southeast Asia, these shifts translate into heightened economic disruption, strategic uncertainty, and growing pressure to navigate competing demands from major powers. Understanding how China’s internal dynamics shape its regional behaviour is therefore critical to assessing future risks and policy options.

This closed-door Strategic Dialogue (Track 2) event convenes China specialists from Singapore-based research institutions, alongside visiting Canadian officials, analysts, and private-sector participants, to assess these developments and their regional implications. 

Critical minerals are foundational to advanced manufacturing, clean energy transitions, and defence and dual-use technologies. Canada and the Indo-Pacific region possess significant resource endowments and technological capabilities across the critical mineral supply value chain – from exploration and extraction to processing, manufacturing, and recycling. 

At the same time, critical mineral supply chains are increasingly exposed to geopolitical coercion, market concentration, foreign interference, cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, ESG risks, and infrastructure vulnerabilities. 

Against this backdrop, this Strategic Roundtable, co-organized by APF Canada and the Canadian Intelligence Service (CSIS), will convene Canadian and regional government officials, security practitioners, and leading experts to explore how like-minded partners can align threat perceptions, share best practices, and identify practical avenues for co-operation on critical minerals and economic security in the Indo-Pacific. 

Please note: this is an invitation-only, closed-door session under Chatham House Rule.