THIS WEEK: the EU’s new Canada offer, cash for farmers and Russia’s Lavrov returns to G20?
EU and Canadian leaders will look to flesh out the terms of closer cooperation on energy, trade and defence at a summit in Montréal this week.
An EU-Canada summit in Montréal will be the main event this week with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council counterpart António Costa represent the bloc at a two-day summit starting on Wednesday (29 October), hosted by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney.
Carney, who has repeatedly spoken about the need for so-called ‘middle powers’ to step up their economic and security cooperation to avoid being squeezed by the United States and China, has emerged as one of the EU’s closest allies since the start of US president Donald Trump’s trade tariff wars last year.
Canada already has one of the most ambitious bilateral trade agreements with the EU and has secured access to defence procurement contracts as part of the EU’s new multi-billion euro defence fund.
And in September at her State of the Union address, von der Leyen offered the prospect of ‘associate membership’ of the bloc to Canada. Talks in Montréal are likely to cover trade, energy, critical minerals, defence, digital technologies and economic security.
In particular, the draft summit communique proposes a feasibility study on long-term Canadian LNG exports to Europe.
Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.
