(Ottawa) Canada will reappear next Monday, in Brussels, an important step towards its rearmament by formalizing its intention to join the Rearm Europe plan. But already, the Germans and the Norwegians are ready to seal a trilateral pact to build and acquire submarines that Canada cruelly needs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney will spend part of next week on the European continent. Its first judgment will be Brussels, where the European Union (EU) Summit (EU) is held on June 23. Then, he will head to The Hague, in the Netherlands, in order to participate in the NATO summit on June 24 and 25.
The office of the Canadian manager did not want to confirm whether the latter would initiate a document of membership at the Rearm Europe plan during his stopover in the Belgian capital. High European officials, however, confirmed on Friday during a technical information session that a partnership should indeed be signed.
The German ambassador to Canada, Matthias Lüttenberg, also expects it. “I am very optimistic about the chances of arriving at an agreement at the Canada-Eu summit, before the NATO summit. It would be a good time to finalize this agreement, “he said in an interview.
Maritime security discussions
The agreement will make it possible to achieve economies of scale in terms of military acquisitions, when Canada is working on a massive reinvestment in defense.
By the very fact, Prime Minister Carney wants to distance itself from the American market, where Canada spends 75 % to 80 % of its military budget.
Even before the deposit of the European plan worth up to 800 billion euros (more than $ 1250 billion Canadian dollars), Germany, Norway and Canada were talking.
At the Washington NATO summit, in July 2024, the three countries signed a letter of intent in terms of maritime security.
“We would really like Canada to choose to join the club of manufacturer and submarine buyers,” said Ambassador Matthias Lüttenberg. Especially since the German giant of the naval industry, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), is expanding.
“They have just acquired a second shipyard in eastern Germany. Their production capacity will therefore be doubled, ”said the Berlin envoy to Ottawa. The company also opened an office in the federal capital a few weeks ago to foam its project as a 212CD type submarines.
“TKMS resolutely undertakes to establish a strong industrial presence in Canada,” wrote spokesperson Nils Beyer in an email. If he materializes, the project would generate considerable economic benefits by creating highly qualified jobs in the country, he adds.
And that is without counting that this is a “strategic opportunity to strengthen the interoperability of NATO” and to make Canada “a strategic industrial partner within a transatlantic submarine company”, he argues.
Responsible for the Norway Embassy in Canada, Trygve Bendiksby indicates that the 212CD type submarine, the fruit of a German-Norwegian collaboration whose bases were laid a decade ago, is configured to meet the operational needs of Nordic countries like Canada.
And the collaborative approach has proven itself, he said. “By pooling resources and expertise, Germany and Norway have already made considerable profits and economies […] This common program has shown great potential to reduce the total cost of possession, “he said.
A blatant need
Canada currently has four Victoria class submarines, which it acquired from the British government in the late 1990s. But since their commissioning, in the early 2000s, they were frequently at the quay or in dry dore.
And at the moment, only one of them is operational, confirmed the Ministry of National Defense.
Almost a year ago, the Canadian government launched the process to officially request industry in order to acquire “up to 12 classic propulsion submarines capable of navigating under the ice” in order to “detect and prevent threats and control our maritime access routes”.
Canadian appetite for new submarines has not gone unnoticed.
Three companies in South Korea made an unsolicited offer to the Canadian government last March, with a delivery promise of the first four submarines by 2035, the CBC network reported a few weeks ago1.
For his part, TKMS evokes a less distant horizon. “If Canada joins the program within 12 to 18 months, the first submarine could be delivered in 2033, benefiting from the current production calendar in Germany,” said spokesman Nils Beyer.
The acquisition of submarines will inflate the percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to the defense budget by Canada. But Prime Minister Mark Carney, who recently promised to reach the target of 2 % set by NATO in 2025-2026, may still be made at the top of the Hague.
Because the American proposal to raise the level to 5 % has come on, and will undoubtedly be on the agenda in the Dutch city.
1. Read the report of the CBC network (in English)
