(AFP) – EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa held talks with Canada’s Mark Carney in Montreal Friday to finalize a new partnership in a world dominated by the United States and China. The two parties are set to unveil a series of deals — from critical minerals to artificial intelligence — and lay the groundwork for a broader alliance open to other democracies seeking to better navigate global trade tensions.
“It means affordability, more competition, more choice, easier access. It means opportunity,” Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, said of closer cooperation with the European Union, as he arrived at the talks. “And it means, at its base, sovereignty, greater resilience, ability to withstand shocks together.” Already sharing a free trade agreement, Canada and the EU have sought to move closer together since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House upended relations with Washington’s traditional allies. Both Canada and the EU have been hit with US tariffs and territorial threats.
Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said Canada could not become a “full-fledged” EU member due to its geographical location, but said the bloc wanted to bring it “as close as possible.” A senior EU official explained the new relationship would be unique to Canada. It entails aligning policies, such as on climate and artificial intelligence, Canada joining some EU programs, and creating a stable governance framework, the official said. The partners are expected to kick off with a series of deals on Friday.
Critical minerals are a key focus of the two-day summit which officially began Thursday evening. They are needed for green technologies such as batteries and wind turbines that Europe sources mostly from China but are also in plentiful stock in Canada. But Canada needs massive infrastructure investment to jump-start its mining industry. An agreement allowing the European Investment Bank to back Canadian critical mineral projects is expected to be unveiled at the summit.
– ‘Alliance for the Future’ –
Brussels and Ottawa also want to collaborate on AI, a field where they are playing catch-up with the United States and China. Europe is ready to open its supercomputing infrastructure to Canadian researchers, industry, and start-ups, von der Leyen said. On Thursday, Ottawa announced a CAN$1.6 billion ($1.1 billion) investment in the Canadian AI firm Cohere. The company has recently partnered with Germany’s Aleph Alpha in a move that Carney said was an example of what Europe and Canada could do together.
“We are not waiting for the future of AI to be decided somewhere else by those we don’t know or by those we don’t trust,” Carney said. A digital trade deal allowing faster and cheaper online transactions is also in the offering. The two parties should also work towards Canada’s participation in EU initiatives like the Erasmus program, which allows university students to spend a semester abroad, and the Galileo satellite program — an alternative to the American Global Positioning System (GPS).
The summit will additionally establish the basis for a larger “Alliance for the Future” open to other “trusted partners” such as Japan, South Korea, or Australia, the senior EU official said. This idea is to form a “common space for economic prosperity” and better coordinate trade policies such as tariffs to avoid mutual harm, the official said. “There is always a risk that inadvertently you hit one of your partners with your economic measures,” the official noted.
– Umberto BACCHI
© 2024 AFP
