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Category: National Security (Page 1 of 7)

National Security (NatSec) as it affects the protection of Canada’s sovereignty, its territorial integrity, Canadian citizens, and the Canadian way of life, from various threats. National Security is about ensuring the continued existence and prosperity of Canada and Canadians.

‘Europe has woken up’: Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the UK commit to produce low-cost drones within a year

2026.02.20 /

Five NATO allies, Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, on Friday February 20, 2026, committed to jointly develop new low-cost autonomous drones.

Defence ministers from the five countries – newly known as the E5 countries – meeting in Krakow, said they would launch an initiative called Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms (LEAP) with the aim of producing drones within a year.

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, was in attendance for the announcement.

Press conference after the meeting of the E5 defense ministers

Sources:

Politico: 5 NATO allies agree to produce low-cost drones https://www.politico.eu/article/5-nato-allies-agree-to-produce-low-cost-drones/

Euronews: E5 defence ministers in Krakow say ‘Europe has woken up’ https://www.euronews.com/2026/02/20/e5-defence-ministers-in-krakow-say-europe-has-woken-up

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly delivers remarks in Toronto

2026.02.19 /

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.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly delivers remarks in Toronto – February 19, 2026

Reference:

Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/industrial-strategy/security-sovereignty-prosperity.html

96% of the world’s nuclear weapons are held by states with authoritarian leaders

2026.02.18 /

Russia and the United States are equally to blame for ending a process begun in the 1960s and marked by the first strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT) in 1972. The construction of over a dozen interlocking agreements over these decades worked to first limit the growth of nuclear stockpiles and then manage their reduction. We went from 70,000 nuclear bombs at the height of the Cold War to just over 12,000 today.

For authoritarian leaders like Putin and Trump, however, these treaties are a restraint on their power. Ending arms control is part of their assault on the global international order; part of the same impulse that caused Putin to invade Ukraine in violation of existing laws and Trump to rupture the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in pursuit of territorial expansion. Although they may still agree to voluntary limitations on their weapons, these do not have the binding force of a treaty and can easily be violated. In their view, their power and wealth depend on military might, not pieces of paper.

Source:

Joseph Cirincione, Le Monde Editorial: ‘Today, 96% of the world’s nuclear weapons are held by states with authoritarian leaders’ https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2026/02/18/today-96-of-the-world-s-nuclear-weapons-are-held-by-states-with-authoritarian-leaders_6750613_23.html

Germany is preparing its foreign intelligence service for a world where the US stops information sharing

2026.02.18 /

Germany wants to boost and unfetter its country’s foreign intelligence service (BND), giving it much broader authority to perpetrate acts of sabotage, conduct offensive cyber operations and more aggressively carry out espionage.

Germany wants to continue working with the Americans, “but if a [U.S.] president, whoever that may be, decides in the future to go it alone without the Europeans … then we must be able to stand on our own two feet,” said Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of a special committee in Germany’s Bundestag that oversees the country’s intelligence services.

Source:

Nette Nöstlinger, Politico: Germany plans to give spies vast new powers in rollback of postwar restraints https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-foreign-intelligence-agency-power-bnd/

Prime Minister Mark Carney launches Canada’s first Defence Industrial Strategy

2026.02.17 /

“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.

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Faced with a growing Russian threat, German and British military chiefs make the case for rearmament

2026.02.16 /

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.”

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UK Prime Minister Starmer warned Europe must move towards ‘interdependence’, calling for a more European-led NATO

2026.02.14 /

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.

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Securing Canada’s participation in the European Union’s SAFE program

2026.02.14 /

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.

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Rubio outlines America’s far-right vision for Europe

2026.02.14 /

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.

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Canada signs agreement to work with Denmark on Arctic security

2026.02.13 /

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.

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