Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Germany late Monday, looking to boost trade and defence ties with Europe’s largest economy amid a five-day trip through the continent.
Carney is moving to align Canada more closely with Europe as U.S. President Donald Trump upends the global trading system with his tariff war, and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine heightens global security risks.
After making a surprise visit to Kyiv for Ukrainian Independence Day on Sunday, Carney travelled to Warsaw for a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, where the two leaders struck a new strategic partnership on trade, defence and energy earlier on Monday.
In Berlin, Carney will hold meetings with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before ending the trip by visiting Canadian troops stationed in Riga, Latvia.
Carney and Tusk said they’ve agreed to work more closely in areas such as defence, aviation, cybersecurity and clean energy. The two nations will start holding annual bilateral meetings and work to encourage industrial partnerships in those sectors.
Carney said the Polish partnership will drive European demand for Canadian exports and solidify Canada’s defence presence in Europe.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced Monday that Canada will be the lead country at a large defence industry expo in Poland next year. That news comes after Canada and Europe signed a deal in June that opens the door for Canada to participate in the Re-Arm Europe program, a massive new defence spending policy by European nations, which should allow Canadian companies to bid on contracts.
Carney touted the partnership with Poland and wider co-operation with Europe as integral for meeting Canada’s goal to quadruple the pace of defence spending by the end of the decade.
“We learned much from the prime minister, from his government, including the importance of pulling our full weight in NATO,” Carney told media Monday.
“It will take us a few years to reach Polish levels of commitment, but it’s possible and we’ve made that commitment.”
Poland expects to spend close to five per cent of its GDP on defence this year, well above the current NATO target of two per cent. The country has rapidly increased its defence spending since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Canada has never met the two per cent target but Carney said in June he intends to increase the defence budget to meet the target by the end of this fiscal year.
Supporting Ukraine is part of that plan, and Carney reaffirmed Canada’s resolve to back Ukraine against Russia during his visit with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday.
In a speech during Ukraine’s Independence Day celebrations, Carney urged international partners to ramp up support for Ukraine at a critical juncture in its war with Russia.
Tusk said in Polish that he felt Carney’s resolve after watching the Canadian prime minister speak with Zelenskyy the day before.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“I understand the readiness of Canada, of Poland, and of our European partners to keep helping Ukraine during the war and after the war. We will be co-operating closely in this field with Canada,” he said, according to a translation provided by the prime minister’s office.
Poland has been one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe over the past decade, and has taken on increasing geopolitical importance since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Before meeting Tusk, Carney received a demonstration from Canadian Armed Forces members stationed in Poland as part of Operation Unifier, which provides training to Ukrainian soldiers.
He told assembled members that their training is “essential for any future security guarantee” in Ukraine.
On Sunday, Carney did not rule out sending Canadian troops to Ukraine as part of a possible security guarantee to secure a peace deal in the war with Russia. But he has not clarified what that could look like. He said conversations with allies for a postwar Ukraine are still unfolding.
At a joint news conference with Carney in Warsaw, Tusk ruled out the possibility of Polish soldiers entering Ukraine after the war is over, but will organize logistics at the border to help the war-torn country and protect the Europe-Russia border.
Defence Minister David McGuinty told reporters Monday before Carney’s meeting with Tusk that the shape of Canada’s role in sustaining an eventual peace in Ukraine is still up for discussion.
“When (Prime Minister Carney) was speaking, he was speaking in the context of a whole series of possibilities, and that’s very difficult to prejudge. We’ll see how this evolves over time. But we are hopeful that peace will come,” McGuinty said.
The prime minister also met with Poland’s newly elected president, Karol Nawrocki, before heading to Germany.
Former German politician Bernd Althusmann said the partnership between Canada and Germany is strong, but also “more important and valuable than ever.”
“In uncertain times like these, you need friends and partners,” he said. “And this applies, from my point of view, equally to Canada and Germany.”
Althusmann runs the Canadian office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank funded by German federal and state governments to promote transatlantic relations and democratic values.
Those ideals are under threat as Trump casts doubt on American support for the NATO military alliance, and slaps tariffs on countries that are historically close U.S. partners, including Canada.
Trump’s return followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which led to an energy crunch in Germany. The war has also had Berlin pledge a military build up that many Germans thought unthinkable after the catastrophe of the Second World War and the end of the Cold War.
“The lesson we have learned in Germany is that the world is not so peaceful as maybe every one of us has hoped,” Althusmann said.
Canada and Germany have been aligned on a number of fronts in recent years, including climate change and hydrogen development, but there have been a few recent bumps causing some wrinkles in the relationship.
During the spring campaign, Canada was the highlight country at the Hannover Messe, the world’s largest trade fair which happens annually in Germany. It’s customary for the annual partnering countries to send high-profile senior politicians to open the fair, as President Barack Obama did in 2016.
German media took notice this April when Canada sent mid-level civil servants to open the fair, with no elected officials, following weeks of the press asking whom Canada would send. The event took place during Canada’s recent election, and just a few weeks after Carney was first sworn in as prime minister.
Canada has also not had an ambassador in Berlin since November 2023, when former B.C. premier John Horgan died. Ottawa has had an interim head of mission for nearly two years, a length of time normally reserved for countries with strained relations.
“It’s not of highest importance,” Althusmann said. “They are such strong friends and partners, and we have such good experience between Canada and Germany in the last years.”
Althusmann was a state minister with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union, the party of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ursula von der Leyen used to be part of, before she was elected president of the European Commission.
He said he knows both leaders “very well” and sees Carney aligning with each on three key themes: energy, security and trade for high-tech fields.
In energy, Germany is looking to Canada to help provide affordable fuel, particularly for the country’s large manufacturing sector that grappled with restrictions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
That same year, Canada and Germany signed an agreement that was to see Canada export hydrogen to Europe starting this year. That plan has hit a few snags, including delays in getting the Canadian production going.
In security, Germany sees the Arctic as a site of potential conflict, despite Berlin, Ottawa, Moscow and Beijing all insisting they want peace in the region.
“It’s for us, a question of peace and freedom in the next (few) years,” Althusmann said.
German vessels are already doing research near Greenland on global warming and marine biology, he said, and Germany has worked with the Arctic Council since the 1990s on initiatives such as boosting work with Indigenous peoples.
German arms and defence manufacturers could also work with Canadian companies through a new European Union partnership.
Berlin has been proposing Canada join a project with Norway to create submarines for the three countries’ naval forces.
And in economic trade, Germany has long argued that the 2017 trade deal between Canada and the European Union could unleash more growth on both sides of the Atlantic. Berlin has fully ratified the trade deal and has suggested its EU peers follow suit.
In February, Germany’s ambassador said colleagues from other EU countries have been working to identify gaps that Canadian business could fill in Europe and vice versa, to make up for American protectionist policies.
“I still see untapped opportunities in the field of green technologies and critical raw materials, where Canada’s wealth of resources in Germany’s innovative strengths can have synergistic effect,” Althusmann said.
Canada’s mix of private and public expertise in cybersecurity could also help bolster Germany’s resilience, Althusmann said.
The visit comes as Canada continues to chair the G7, after hosting the June leaders’ summit in Alberta. Ottawa is working on minister-level events that would give Ottawa and Berlin a chance to convince their American counterparts to change course on issues like industrial policy or foreign aid.
“We have much to do for the next (few) years and therefore such a visit … is in the right time,” Althusmann said. “We need this strong partnership, in a moment where no one really knows what will happen in the next years, especially in the U.S.,” he said.
Read the full article here
