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Canada signed a defence partnership with the EU on Monday as the two sides increase their security co-operation in response to Donald Trump’s threats against his Nato allies.
The US president has questioned continued American support for allies that spend insufficiently on their own armed forces, and has threatened both Canada and Europe with punitive tariffs for allegedly taking advantage of the US.
In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a move away from buying US weapons, and the EU has begun a rearmament effort.
Speaking in Brussels, Carney said the agreement marked “a new era of co-operation”.
“We are both embarking on major investments in our defence capacities. We have some complementaries that will allow us both to move more rapidly because we have excess capacity in certain areas.”
The pact signed in Brussels is the first step to Ottawa joining an EU fund of up to €150bn to jointly procure arms.
“Hard times reveal true friends,” said EU president Ursula von der Leyen. “In these challenging times, we are taking huge steps forward to deepen our strategic partnership.”
Canadian troops attached to Nato in Latvia were making “Europe’s eastern flank stronger and safer,” she added.
The UK last month signed a similar deal with the EU, and the bloc has also inked such partnerships with other countries, including South Korea.
“This is as comprehensive a framework as we can offer a third country,” said an EU official, and was set to usher in “a new era in co-operation”.
The agreement will “open up new avenues for joint work on crisis management, military mobility, maritime security, cyber and hybrid threats, and defence industrial co-operation”.
Canada and the EU would also collaborate on support for Ukraine, international peace and crisis management, counterterrorism, arms control, non-proliferation, disarmament and space security, they said.
Carney has promised to boost defence spending to reach Nato’s current target of 2 per cent of GDP this year, up from 1.45 per cent of GDP in 2024. He is also expected to join with other Nato leaders in The Hague this week in agreeing to raise that target to 5 per cent of GDP by 2030 to placate Trump’s demands.
Carney recently said his country was “too reliant on the United States” for defence capabilities, with 80 per cent of the weapons budget spent on US weapons. He is reviewing the previous government’s decision to buy 88 F-35 jets from US contractor Lockheed Martin, although he committed to the first 16 aircraft.
The Eurofighter, French Rafale or Swedish Gripen jets are possible alternatives to the US fighter jet.
On trade, the EU wants to buy more liquefied natural gas and critical raw materials from Canada to reduce its dependence on the US and China, respectively.
But trade tensions remain. Ten EU member states out of 27 have still not ratified a free trade agreement with Canada (Ceta) signed nine years ago, which has reduced tariffs on goods and opened up services. After Ceta took effect provisionally in 2017, there has been a 71 per cent increase in bilateral trade in goods and services between the EU and Canada, from €72.2bn in 2016 to €123bn in 2023.
However, Brussels said that a hoped-for boost in investment had not materialised because the failure to ratify meant the investor protection elements had not come into effect.
Georg Riekeles, associate director at the European Policy Centre think-tank, said global volatility and the US’s dwindling commitment to the global rules-based order had pushed Canada and the EU together.
“Keeping Canada engaged in Europe’s rapidly evolving defence architecture is a no-brainer,” he said. “The steps the EU is taking on defence complements what exists and can happen between Nato allies without compromising the alliance.”
