OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Germany to build out defense and energy ties, a move designed to buffer Canada’s economy against the tariff threats posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“There’s a broad range of areas, from critical minerals to energy and defense and security, where we are intensifying our discussions with Germany,” Carney told reporters Friday on Parliament Hill.
He said he’ll be accompanied by senior members of his Cabinet responsible for defense, trade and industry to bolster economic and security cooperation.
The prime minister has said Trump’s trade agenda presents Ottawa with no choice but to build new alliances.
“Canada must be looking elsewhere to expand our trade, to build our economy and to protect our sovereignty,” the prime minister said earlier this year. “Canada is ready to take a leadership role in building a coalition of like-minded countries.”
To that end, Carney’s government has been on a full-court press in Europe. This week, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand were in Scandinavia. Joly was in Sweden and Finland, while Anand met with Canada’s Nordic 5 NATO allies in Finland.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will welcome Carney in Berlin Tuesday morning.
Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty is scheduled to meet with his counterpart, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson will do the rounds in Berlin, meeting with CEOs and executives from energy, manufacturing and defense companies. He’ll also deliver a speech to a business crowd at the Canadian embassy.
“It’s really a trade mission focused on energy and critical minerals,” said a government official with knowledge of Hodgson’s plans, and who was granted anonymity to speak about them.
Germany is “one of the priority markets” in the EU because it is the continent’s largest economy, the official noted.
Germany is interested in Canada’s rare earth minerals to support clean energy technology and electric vehicles. It also needs to power its buildout of military hardware as a NATO member striving to meet the alliance’s new 5 percent of GDP spending target, said the official. Germany is still weaning itself off Russian gas.
Hodgson will also be following up on the 2022 Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance that set the ambitious goal of beginning transatlantic deliveries this year. “We’ve been working very hard with them for the last several years on a transatlantic hydrogen corridor,” the official said, but added no further details.
Germany also wants to secure new sources of critical minerals to counter China’s domination and weaponization of the global market.
“Canada has a lot to bring to the world stage, but that also requires catalyzing investment,” the official said. “We are open to German investment in Canadian projects, if those will help get projects off the ground.”
Carney said he looked forward to talking to Merz after hosting him at the G7 in Alberta earlier this year, building on Canada’s larger trade deal with the European Union.
Ukraine will also be on their agenda, as it is in all conversations Carney is having with foreign leaders these days, including on what Canada’s future role might be.
“I have had conversations about this, including with President Trump, in the last few weeks. We are making progress,” he said, calling it a “delicate” question.
Trump said Friday that he wants “to be very good” to Canada. “I like Carney a lot,” he said in the Oval Office. “I think he’s a good person.”
