Brussels and Ottawa have taken an important step toward strengthening transatlantic defense ties. On November 27, 2025, on the sidelines of the NATO-EU summit in Brussels, an agreement was signed on Canada’s participation in the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) program and a number of related projects, as well as an expanded framework agreement on Canada’s participation in European defense initiatives.
Canada has officially become the third country to join PESCO (alongside Norway and the US, which joined earlier on a limited basis).
Ottawa is joining 11 specific PESCO projects, including:
Military Mobility
Cyber Rapid Response Teams
European Medical Command
Harbour & Maritime Surveillance
Military Disaster Relief
A new EU-Canada Security and Defense Partnership Agreement has been signed, replacing the 2016 framework agreement and giving Canadian companies access to European Defense Fund (EDF) financing on an equal footing with European companies. Canada will join the European Patrol Corvette (EPC) program as a third-level partner.
For the first time, a country that is not a member of the EU and does not share a geographical border with Europe is gaining such deep access to European defense mechanisms.
This is a direct response to the growing threats from Russia in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Canada and the countries of Northern Europe (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway) are now forming a single operational space. Canada’s increased involvement allows Europe to partially compensate for a possible decline in American involvement in the event of a second term for Donald Trump.
The signing took place against the backdrop of record high EU defense spending (€270 billion in 2024) and a growing understanding that the Arctic is becoming a new theater of confrontation. Canada, with the world’s longest Arctic coastline, is becoming a key European partner outside NATO.
The European-Canadian defense partnership is ceasing to be merely declarative and is becoming a real instrument of collective security in the new geopolitical reality. Transatlantic ties now run not only through Washington, but also directly through Ottawa and Brussels.