Canada and the European Union opened a new era of transatlantic co-operation Monday with the official signing of a security and defence partnership at a joint summit in Brussels.
The agreement commits Canada and Europe to collaborating on defence and is a step toward Canada participating in the continent’s massive new defence procurement program, known as ReArm Europe.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who travelled to Brussels for the EU-Canada summit, is pursuing more options for defence procurement as Canada seeks to reduce its trade and security reliance on the United States.
“We are going to build trading relationships with like-minded partners, reliable partners,” Carney told a news conference after the summit.
“The future of trade does have this defence co-operation,” Carney added, saying that some NATO allies are pursuing “an allied industrial policy that will make us stronger. That’s the future of the trade, not a narrow discussion on tariffs.”
On trade talks with the U.S., Carney said he’s focused on getting the “right deal” during the 30-day negotiating window.
Following the recent G7 summit, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed a continued fondness for tariffs while acknowledging Carney has a “different concept” of trade.
Carney ducked a question during Monday’s press conference about whether he feels more comfortable in Brussels than in Washington D.C. The prime minister talked about the hot, humid weather in Washington right now and joked that he’s “sure the dinner will be better” in Brussels.
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Carney met with European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the summit, before the final deal was signed.
Costa said Canada and the EU are “looking at the world through the same lens” and this meeting has taken the partnership to a new level.
Von der Leyen told Carney he was “here among friends.” She said Canada and the EU are two strong democracies bound by historic ties and connected by a “dynamic, fair and open” trade partnership.
She said the EU wants not just to reaffirm the friendship and partnership with Canada but also to reshape it. She said the agreement is the “most comprehensive” ever completed.
“We know we can count on you and you can count on us,” she said.
Carney said the leaders are putting into practice some of what they discussed at the G7 and have been working on for years.
Under the terms of the agreement, Canada and the EU will hold an annual “security and defence dialogue” involving top officials. The agreement also commits both partners to expanding co-operation in support of Ukraine, improving Canadian military mobility in Europe and enhancing maritime co-operation in regions of “mutual interest” like the Indo-Pacific.
Von der Leyen said that the “door’s open” for Canada to enter joint military procurement with Europe after the summit.
“It is important to do these joint procurements, not only for the scaling up of the industry, because the more you scale you can have better, cheaper and faster results, but also to improve the interoperability between our troops,” she said.
Canada will need to sign a second agreement with the European Commission before it can take part in the 150-billion-euro ReArm Europe initiative.
The security and defence agreement also pledges further collaboration on emerging issues in cybersecurity, foreign interference, disinformation and outer space policy.
“So right at the point where both of our jurisdictions need to increase to combat defence threats, we pool our resources or we can pool much of our resources,” Carney said. “We’ll be more than the sum of the parts.”
Carney also met with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever ahead of the Canada-EU summit.
De Wever said that Canada’s partnership with the EU is vital now because “we’ve woken up in a world that doesn’t look that friendly anymore.”
On Tuesday, Carney travels to The Hague for the NATO summit, where member nations will decide whether to fully endorse a substantial increase in the defence spending target, from two per cent of GDP to five per cent.
Carney said earlier this month Canada would increase its defence spending this year to meet the two per cent target for the first time since it was established in 2014.
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