Europe agrees to Canada joining a defense program news

The European Union and Canada announced Monday an agreement allowing Ottawa to join the European defense financing program known as SAIF.

“In these geopolitically turbulent times, SAIF is a way to increase cooperation and better achieve defense and spending goals,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a joint statement.

The statement praised the agreement that gives Canada the right to participate in the program, calling it “the next step in deepening our cooperation and a symbol of the common priorities of the European Union and Canada.”

“Together, we will work to create resilient defense supply chains across our industries at a critical time for global security,” he added.

The SAIF program, or Security Action for Europe, aims to provide loans to participating countries on favorable terms to purchase weapons jointly with other partners.

Participants must contribute financially to this scheme, but this matter constituted a stumbling block last week for Britain, which also wanted to join the program but rejected the required joining fees.

The European Union seeks to strengthen its defense industry to confront the growing military threat from Russia, in addition to disengaging the United States from Europe.