The base is where Canada leads a multi-national NATO brigade in its largest foreign military deployment. Canada has trained 45,000 Ukrainian troops through NATO’s Operation Unifier, starting soon after Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Training was relocated to Poland after Russia’s full-scale February 2022 invasion.
Carney’s political meetings will include Polish President Donald Tusk, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. In Poland, discussions will focus on the aerospace, defense and energy and nuclear sectors.
Carney and the Cabinet ministers are eager to bolster economic cooperation and investment in defense and security as all NATO countries aim to reach the alliance’s new 5 percent of GDP spending target.
In Germany, the official said, Carney and Merz plan to announce they are working “to secure critical mineral supply chains” and co-fund projects across a range of industries.
For most of August, Carney has worked mainly behind closed doors, holding calls with Zelenskyy and European allies, while Trump grabbed headlines hosting the likes of Putin in Alaska, and European leaders at the White House.
On Aug. 17, Carney emerged from a coalition-of-the-willing call with Zelenskyy to announce C$2 billion in new military support for Ukraine and the disbursement of a C$2.3 billion loan through a G7 loan acceleration mechanism.
The prime minister’s office has also highlighted efforts to repatriate Ukrainian children seized by Russia since 2022. “Canada also welcomes the new appeal to President Putin by the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, to consider the plight of children in ending this war,” the prime minister’s office said.
