Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday at an EU-Canada summit in Brussels formally signed a historic security and defence pact between Canada and the European Union.In signing the agreement, Carney cemented Canada's participation in the EU’s €150 billion (C$237 billion) joint arms procurement fund (SAFE), a five-year loan facility that allows participating countries to borrow funds to jointly purchase military equipment. The €150 billion figure represents the total borrowing capacity of the fund, not a fixed contribution by Canada or any other single country. Canada will only be responsible for repaying the amount it chooses to draw from the fund.The pact also committed Canada to closer cooperation with the EU on cyber, hybrid, and space threats, arms control, and military mobility, and launched negotiations on a Canada–EU digital agreement, including data governance and AI standards.Carney’s efforts to solidify cooperation with the EU come as tensions rise between Canada and the US, with the pact representing a shift from reliance on the US for military defence — and American weapons too.While the EU meetings were initially meant to focus on the Ukraine-Russia war, talks centered instead on the escalating tensions in the Middle East, after President Donald Trump initiated strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend..Carney met with EU President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa for a two-hour meeting in Brussels, and will head to The Hague in the Netherlands for a NATO summit on Tuesday.According to Reuters, EU officials said the EU-Canada summit was not a "business as usual" meeting — it ushered in “a new era in cooperation.”The EU signed a similar deal with the UK in May, and is in talks with other nations, including South Korea, on similar agreements.“This is as comprehensive a framework as we can offer a third country,” said an EU official, according to the Financial Times.“[The pact would] open up new avenues for joint work on crisis management, military mobility, maritime security, cyber and hybrid threats, and defence industrial cooperation,” and Canada and the EU would collaborate on support for Ukraine, international peace and crisis management, counterterrorism, arms control, non-proliferation, disarmament, and space security, they said..Carney at the NATO summit in The Hague is expected to join other leaders in committing to raise defence spending targets from 2% to 5% — a goal Canada failed to meet under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Carney earlier promised to meet the 2% target by the end of 2025, up from 1.45% in 2024. He said Canada was “too reliant on the United States” for defence, stating that 80% of the weapons budget is spent on US weapons.Meanwhile, the EU said it wants to buy more liquefied natural gas and critical raw materials from Canada, thereby reducing its reliance on the US and China.
