The EU and Canada reinforce ties amid the crisis with the US

The European Union and Canada are responding to the geostrategic and commercial shock created by their main partner, the United States, by further strengthening their own bilateral relations. Brussels and Ottawa on Monday held a summit in the EU capital, where they signed a security and defense agreement that is meant to be a step in a New EU-Canada Strategic Partnership of the Future. “We have met to renew our enduring commitment and take a pivotal step to further reinforce the strategic partnership between the European Union and Canada,” begins the joint statement signed by both parties at the end of the summit. “In a rapidly changing world marked by geopolitical uncertainty, shifting economic dynamics, and the accelerating impacts of climate change, this partnership is more important than ever.”

The meeting was attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President and former Portuguese PM António Costa, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. At the close of the summit, Costa stated that the relationship between the two parties has reached an “unprecedented level.”

There are already very close economic, historical, and cultural ties between the EU and the world’s second-largest country. The EU and Canada already have a trade agreement, CETA, which has been partially in force since 2017. And before becoming the prime minister of Canada, Carney served as governor of the Bank of Canada and of the Bank of England.

Under the new security and defense agreement, the first signed by the EU with a country on the American continent, Canadian companies will be eligible for procurement programs from the joint fund of €150 billion in loans for arms purchases.

In addition to the defense pact, the two parties will begin negotiations to reach a digital and tech agreement that would “enhance cooperation on AI innovation, including collaboration on AI Factories, to link our high-performance computing infrastructure and to deepen research cooperation in strategic technology areas such as AI and quantum.” This deal would also aid Europe with one of its greatest needs: critical raw materials that the EU lacks. “Ninety percent of Canada’s mining resources are exported, which is music to our ears,” Von der Leyen noted.

Monday’s meeting has a high symbolic value given the current state of relations with Washington. “Canada is the most European of all the countries that aren’t in Europe,” noted Carney emphasized at the press conference with Von der Leyen and Costa. Along those lines, the Portuguese leader began his remarks by emphasizing that Canada is “a special friend.”

Canada has been putting up for months with humiliating rhetoric from Donald Trump, who claims he wants the country to become the 51st U.S. state. It has suffered several tariff increases despite having signed a free trade agreement with Washington and Mexico. Brussels, meanwhile, has been receiving threats from the White House in the midst of trade negotiations over the tariff war launched by the U.S. president, who never passes up an opportunity to humiliate his partners across the Atlantic by highlighting how poorly, in his opinion, the EU treats his country.

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