Carney lands in Poland, kicking off mission to deepen European ties

It is his fourth trip to Europe since taking office in March, as he moves to align Canada closer with Europe while the relationship sours with the United States under President Donald Trump.

Carney said on Friday that Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, Defence Minister David McGuinty and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly will join him on the tour.

Just days after being sworn in last winter, he flew to France and the United Kingdom, where he called Canada the “most European of non-European nations.” Squeezing in the visit just before he called an election, Carney met with French President Emmanuel Macron, King Charles and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer all in the same day.

In May he travelled to Rome for the inauguration mass for Pope Leo XIV, and meetings with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

In June he travelled to Brussels where he signed a new defence and security deal with the European Union. The agreement paves the way for Canada to participate in the massive Re-Arm Europe initiative, strengthening ties in the defence industry and shifting Canada away from such heavy reliance on the U.S.

He also attended the NATO leaders’ summit in the Netherlands.

A senior government official told reporters ahead of the trip that bringing Canada closer to Europe is a “top priority” for the Carney government.

The trip is to broadly focus on helping to diversify Canada’s trade prospects with existing allies amid the United States’ ongoing global tariff campaign, as well as deepening defence and security pacts, the official said.

While in Poland, Carney is expected to meet with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Karol Nawrocki.

The senior official said advancing trade talks in energy, defence and aerospace, among other industries, will be a priority in Poland, as is support for Ukraine.

Poland is a key transit hub for military assistance for Ukraine.

Since 2015, Canada has trained 45,000 Ukrainian troops via Operation Unifier. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, much of that training has taken place in Poland.

Marcin Gabrys, chair of Canadian Studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, said Poland has “very solid foundations” in its relations with Canada, and wants more co-operation in sectors such as nuclear technology, with both countries singing an agreement in January for projects like small modular reactors.

“There are a lot of opportunities in terms of economic co-operation,” he said, including in mining and critical minerals, and ties through Poland’s large diaspora in Canada.

Canada’s reserves of critical minerals are also expected to be a significant focus of Carney’s talks with officials and business leaders in Germany.

Carney is scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday.

Carney said Friday that he is looking to bolster Canada’s existing partnership with Germany.

“There’s a broad range of areas, from critical minerals to energy and defence and security, where we are intensifying our discussions with Germany,” he told reporters.

Germany is Canada’s largest export market in Europe and the two have jointly pledged $600 million to export Canadian hydrogen to Europe, through an agreement signed in August 2022.

Canada has not had an ambassador in Berlin since the death of former B.C. politician John Horgan in November 2023.

Carney is expected to wrap up the trip by meeting Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa on Wednesday and paying a visit to Canadian troops stationed in the country.

Since 2017, Canada has led a multinational NATO battle group in Latvia as part of the efforts by the military alliance to reinforce its eastern flank and respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Latvian mission is one of eight battle groups established by NATO in eastern Europe in what some refer to as a “tripwire” to prevent Moscow from invading.

The first four — in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — were set up in 2017, three years after Russia’s first Ukrainian invasion in Crimea. After the broader 2022 Russian invasion, battle groups were also established in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

In Riga, Operation Reassurance includes personnel from more than a dozen NATO countries and is less than 300 kilometres from the Russian border.

The senior official said 1,900 members of the Canadian Armed Forces are stationed in Latvia, the Canadian Armed Forces’ largest overseas mission.

Marcus Kolga, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said the mission is crucial for Canada.

“It’s probably one of the most important international missions that we’ve been engaged in since the liberation of the Netherlands in World War II,” he said.

“It allows them to go on living their lives normally, even though that threat is right at their doorstep,” he said, adding this applies to Latvians as well as neighbouring Estonians and Lithuanians.

“It demonstrates that Canada is active and it won’t be pushed around by Vladimir Putin,” he said.

The trip to Europe comes against a backdrop of intensifying efforts to broker a peace in Ukraine’s war with Russia. Earlier this month, Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, followed a few days later by a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders at the White House.

Canada is a member of the Coalition of the Willing, a group of member states pledged to support Ukraine in the war against Russia. Carney has attended virtual meetings of the group in recent weeks, but there are no confirmations yet about what role Canada will play to help maintain peace if a ceasefire deal is reached.

— with files from Dylan Robertson in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2025.