CANADA AND EU SIGN HISTORIC DEFENCE PACT AMID GLOBAL TURBULENCE, TRUMP UNCERTAINTY

In a landmark move signaling transatlantic realignment, Canada and the European Union signed a sweeping security and defense pact on Monday, June 23rd, broadening cooperation on military, cyber, and space defense, as well as joint arms procurement. The agreement comes amid mounting global instability and declining U.S. leadership under President Donald Trump.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joined European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council leader António Costa in Brussels to sign the pact. Carney described the agreement as “a hinge moment of history,” adding that Canada is “the most European of the non-European countries.”
Notably absent from praise at the press conference was President Trump, whose frequent disparagement of NATO and threats of U.S. withdrawal have unnerved European allies. Carney, who won a decisive April election opposing calls for Canada to become “the 51st U.S. state,” pledged to diversify Canada’s partnerships.
The new EU-Canada pact opens the door for Canadian access to the bloc’s €150 billion Safe defense fund and will enable joint procurement efforts, especially in air defense. Von der Leyen emphasized that negotiations on Canada’s access to joint projects will begin “swiftly.”
The agreement mirrors a similar arrangement recently signed with the UK and builds on Canada’s existing €125 billion trade relationship with the EU under the CETA free trade deal. However, the trade pact still awaits ratification by 10 EU member states.
Ahead of the summit, Carney and his wife visited Belgium’s Schoonselhof military cemetery, paying tribute to 348 Canadians who died in Europe during the World Wars. “These were brave young soldiers who ventured across the Atlantic to defend the freedom of Europe,” Carney wrote on social media, accompanied by images of wreath-laying and the symbolic playing of the Last Post.
The defence agreement marks the first of its kind between the EU and any country in the Americas and signals a deeper pivot by traditional U.S. allies toward a more integrated and self-reliant European defense framework in the face of growing authoritarian threats and U.S. unpredictability.