Khaberni - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney launched a multi-billion-dollar plan on Tuesday to strengthen the Canadian Armed Forces and reduce dependence on the United States.
Carney’s announcement of Canada’s first defense industry strategy comes amid threats by U.S. President Donald Trump’s stances and decisions to undermine traditional U.S. alliances.
The Canadian Prime Minister considered that his country had not taken sufficient steps to enable it to defend itself in an increasingly dangerous world, and that it was no longer possible to rely on American protection.
Carney said, “We relied more than we should on our geography and on others to protect us.”
He added, “This created vulnerabilities that we can no longer bear and a dependence (on other entities) that we can no longer continue with.”
Carney has become one of the most prominent critics of the Trump administration, especially after his speech last month at the World Economic Forum, in which he stated that the global system led by the United States and based on laws is experiencing a “crack” due to Trump.
On Tuesday, Carney also discussed a speech given by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week at the Munich Security Conference, highlighting what the Prime Minister describes as a widening gap between American and Canadian values.
In a statement to journalists after his speech on the defense plan, Carney mentioned that Rubio talked about Washington's pursuit to defend “Christian nationalism.”
Carney emphasized that “Canadian nationalism is a civic nationalism,” and that Ottawa defends everyone's rights in a vast and pluralistic country.
Carney’s remarks about Rubio’s statements were not in response to any question about them.
Carney’s office stated that the defense industry strategy amounts to an investment exceeding "half a trillion dollars (366 billion U.S. dollars) in Canada’s security, economic prosperity, and sovereignty."
In addition to direct government defense spending of about 80 billion Canadian dollars over the next five years, the plan includes, according to Carney, an allocation of 180 billion Canadian dollars for defense purchases and 290 billion Canadian dollars in defense and security-related infrastructure over the next ten years.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed Carney’s announcement, describing it as a “big bet on Canada.”
The Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, David Pearce, said, “The scale of the new funding is unprecedented”, adding that the success of the plan will be measured by whether the funds produce “a stronger Canadian Armed Forces.”
Amid deteriorating relations between Canada and the United States, particularly at the security level, the Canadian government is seeking to forge closer relations with the European Union. At the Munich Security Conference, Ottawa officially joined the European Defense Fund program known as "SAIFE", becoming the only non-European member in the defense funding scheme of the bloc.
Carney stressed the necessity that Canada “build a local industrial-defense base so that we are not hostage to others' decisions when it comes to our security”.
