Prime Minister Mark Carney traveled to Europe over the weekend to attend a summit on NATO-Canada EU relations.
The Prime Minister's Office confirmed Carney's travel plans after a summit of G7 leaders in Alberta.
Kahney will travel to Brussels on Sunday to meet with European leaders.
The Prime Minister's Office said leaders will work to “strengthen Canadian EU relations in all sectors, including trade and defense.”
Kahney will then travel to The Hague, Netherlands, to attend the NATO summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Prime Minister's Office said Carney will interact with allies at the summit to “reach the evolving threat in a more dangerous and divided world.”
The NATO meeting may focus on defense spending. NATO allies are expected to adopt a plan to increase their members' defense spending targets to 5% of their national GDP – levels not met in Canada since the 1950s.
Carney announced last week that Canada will quickly increase its military spending timeline to increase by $9 billion to this year's fiscal framework to meet NATO's 2% national GDP target.
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Carney warned that Canada is too dependent on the increasingly unreliable U.S. in terms of U.S. defense and spends much of its major budget on the southern border.
NATO's GDP forecasts put Canada's economy at $3.1 trillion a year, with its NATO promised value of about $62.5 billion, according to senior government officials.
The federal government currently spends about 1.45% of its royal GDP on defense, and has not spent nearly 2% since 1990 – despite pledging its biggest ally over the years.
In a press conference ending the G7 summit on Tuesday, Carney said the Allied forces’ attention will shift from next week’s threat to economic security to addressing global defense and security issues at the NATO and the Canadian EU summit.
“We recognize that our leadership is defined not only by the power of our values, but will also define our values of power,” he told reporters.
– Files with Kyle Duggan and Nick Murray
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
