Everything is connected
In the days after the unveiling of the Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly addresses the Empire Club of Canada and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.
Reference:
Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/industrial-strategy/security-sovereignty-prosperity.html
“The work of defending Canada is the work of building Canada. Security and prosperity are mutually reinforcing foundations of the true North, strong and free. Our new Defence Industrial Strategy ensures Canada remains a sovereign nation, in charge of its own destiny. That’s Canada strong, and that’s what we are building, together.”
Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
The world is changing rapidly. The international rules-based order is fading, and technological change is expanding the fields of conflict. In response, Canada’s new government is focused on what Canadians can control: rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Canada is on track to hit our 2% NATO spending target this fiscal year and applications to join the CAF are up nearly 13%.
To protect Canada’s sovereignty, build Canadian prosperity, and strengthen Canadian strategic autonomy, the federal government is changing how Canada invests in defence.
The defence chief of Germany’s Bundeswehr, General Carsten Breuer, and the United Kingdom’s chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, have made an unprecedented joint statement, published in The Guardian and German newspaper Die Welt, in which they make their “moral” case for rearmament and prepare for the threat of war with Russia.
Published in the wake of the Munich Security Conference, Breuer and Knighton said they were speaking “not merely as the military leaders of two of Europe’s largest military spenders, but as voices for a Europe that must now confront uncomfortable truths about its security.”
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, February 14, 2026, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned Europe must shift away from “overdependance” of US and move towards European “interdependence”, calling for a more European-led NATO underpinned by deeper UK-EU defence and industrial cooperation.
PM Starmer warned the security environment had shifted dramatically, that Russia’s aggression was now being felt across the continent through disinformation, cyberattacks and sabotage, alongside its ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The European Union and Canada signed an agreement that will allow Canada to participate in the $240 billion (€150 billion) loans-for-weapons SAFE initiative.
The agreement was signed on Saturday, February 14, 2026 in Germany, at the occasion of the Munich Security Conference, by European Union Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius and David McGuinty, Minister of National Defence.
Canada is the first non-EU country to join the European Union’s SAFE initiative.
At last year’s Munich Security Conference, US Vice President JD Vance stunned European leaders, accusing them of censorship, and suppressing far-right speech.
Today, Saturday, February 14, 2026, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated many of the same hard-right MAGA ideas, though in a slightly less aggressive tone, warning Europe of ‘civilization erasure’.
Rubio told European leaders that the European continent ‘belongs with’ the US, as the two have ‘spiritual’ ties, while making white nationalistic references. Rubio called on Europe to join Trump’s far-right world order.
Canada’s agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark to work more closely together on matters of Arctic security and defence, which includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands, highlights their desire to build up their presence in their North, and their ability to defend it.
The signing, done by Defence Minister David McGuinty at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday, February 13, 2026.
The co-operation agreement is not a formal treaty and does not commit Canada to defending Danish sovereignty over and above the commitments that already exist under NATO’s Article 5.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speech at the opening of the Munich Security Conference, amounted to a strategic repositioning of Germany: still anchored in NATO, but preparing for a future in which American guarantees are less reliable and Europe must carry more responsibility.
“In the era of great powers, our freedom is no longer simply guaranteed. It is under threat,” said Merz.
In response to the Munich Security Report 2026, Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO, is defended the US against criticism that the Trump administration’s shift in thinking about its global policies poses a real challenge to the liberal international order.
Source:
The Guardian: US not trying to dismantle NATO or undermine current world order, US ambassador says in response to MSC’s criticism report https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/09/europe-eu-jimmy-lai-ukraine-russia-us-portugal-latest-news-updates
Elsewhere:
Munich Security Report 2026: https://securityconference.org/en/publications/munich-security-report/2026/
MSC Report asserts Europe needs to be more assertive and militarily independent from the US administration https://natsec.ca/2026/munich-security-report-warns-europe-assertive-militarily-independent-from-us/
The Munich Security Report 2026 warns the greatest challenge to the liberal international order is “coming from within” through the dramatic shift in the current US administration that no longer shares a commitment to liberal democratic norms, values, and its alliances.
The world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics. Sweeping destruction – rather than careful reforms and policy corrections – is the order of the day. The most prominent of those who promise to free their country from the existing order’s constraints and rebuild a stronger, more prosperous nation is the current US administration. As a result, more than 80 years after construction began, the US-led post-1945 international order is now under destruction.
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