A Joint Cooperation Committee handled ASEAN-Canada cooperation, holding eleven meetings alternately in ASEAN and Canada from 1983 to 1997. Such meetings were suspended after Myanmar joined ASEAN in July 1997, two months after the eleventh JCC meeting, as Canada-found itself unable to extend assistance to an association that had Myanmar as one of its members. It also claimed to be constrained by rules of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development against giving aid to high-income countries like Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.
Both ASEAN and Canada, however, tried hard to get the dialogue back on track, even as neither side gave way on what each stood on as a matter of principle. I myself suggested to the Canadians a number of formulas that
might get the relationship going while papering over the disagreements. After several attempts and much coming and going, the dialogue, at senior officials' level, was finally held at the end of March 2004 in Bandar Seri Begawan, with Brunei Darussalam as co-chair, the first time in seven years. According to the co-chairs' statement issued at the close of the dialogue, Canada fully supported ASEAN's recent endeavours, including the ASEAN Community and the Initiative for ASEAN Integration, and the linkages that the association was forging with neighbouring Dialogue Partners. Canada expressed its hope for expanded exchanges with ASEAN. An interesting initiative that came out of the meeting was the proposal for "trilateral cooperation" involving Canada, one of the older ASEAN members and one of the newer ones, which would enable Canada to extend assistance to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam without complications. In general, the dialogue seemed to be upbeat and forward looking. Following an "ASEAN-Canada Partnership Symposium" in Brune Darussalam, the dialogue resumed in Vancouver in April2005. The statement issued there was even more optimistic, referring to additional efforts to expand the content of the relationship. A meeting of ASEAN and Canadian senior economic officials and a business forum took place for the first time in Toronto in May.