German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has invited NATO partner Canada to enter into a joint partnership with Norway to protect infrastructure in the far north.
"Let us initiate a trilateral strategic maritime partnership with a focus on securing sea lines of communication through the northern Atlantic and Arctic," Pistorius said on Friday in the Canadian capital Ottawa at a meeting with his counterpart Bill Blair. The initiative could be the umbrella for joint activities.
Blair said that the Canadian Arctic was exposed to new and growing threats. Canada has noticed that Russia and China are positioning themselves there, he said.
"With climate change, much of the region is becoming far more accessible," Blair said. "We might have been able to rely on ice to help defend the continent, but climate change is challenging that assumption ... We know that we need to be stronger and more persistently present in the region."
The Canadian government adopted new defence policy guidelines in April. In it, the NATO member says that the most urgent task is to ensure the protection of its own sovereignty in the Arctic, where Russia has the strongest overall military presence of all states.
The considerations are based on the assumption that in the event of a military conflict with Russia in Europe, there will also be a trial of strength in the strategically important Arctic.
Climate change and challenges posed by autocratic systems - such as China - are also security policy challenges to which answers are being prepared. Canada wants to acquire additional reconnaissance capabilities and be better equipped on land and at sea.
Recently, the country - like other Western nations - was no longer able to reach its own target of 71,500 soldiers in the armed forces. New recruitment efforts and incentives are to be introduced in response to this. In addition, the equivalent of almost US$6 billion is to be spent on armaments within five years, and almost US$54 billion over 20 years.
Pistorius travelled to Ottawa from Washington, where he had assured the previous day that Germany is prepared to play a leading security policy role in Europe and will provide the military capabilities for this.
"Let us – the US and Germany together - shape a future with all those who stand up for freedom, peace and the rules-based international order," he said in a keynote speech at the renowned Johns Hopkins University. He had earlier held talks with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.
The Europeans were aware that the US was focusing its attention on the Indo-Pacific and had to react to China's armament, aggressive economic policy and striving for geopolitical dominance. Germany is determined to make a contribution to a rules-based order there too.
"I am convinced that only together, America and Europe can keep the West strong, defending it against Russia's expansionist ambitions and other actors' hunger for power and supremacy," said Pistorius.
On Friday, Canada agreed to contribute the equivalent of US$55.5 million to the German initiative to strengthen Ukraine's air defence against Russian attacks.
Germany is campaigning among its allies for increased involvement but has so far only received pledges - especially from Europe - that can only be described as small compared to the needs of the Ukrainians.
