Prime Minister Carney in Brussels for EU-Canada summit

Prime Minister Mark Carney began official events for his four-day trip to Europe Monday by visiting a military cemetery in Belgium before meeting with European counterparts at the EU-Canada summit.

Carney said on social media Sunday he was in Brussels to launch "a new era of partnership" between Canada and the European Union to benefit workers, businesses and security "on both sides of the Atlantic."

Carney started the day with a visit to the Antwerp Schoonselhof Military Cemetery, where 348 Canadian soldiers are buried.

Carney toured the cemetery alongside his wife, Diana Fox Carney, and Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.

Carney also took part in a wreath-laying ceremony with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and National Defence Minister David McGuinty. Stéphane Dion, special envoy to the European Union and Europe, also attended.

Carney is expected to meet later Monday with De Wever, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

At the EU-Canada summit, Anand and McGuinty are expected to sign a security and defence agreement with the European bloc — an agreement one European official described last week as one of the most ambitious deals the continent's powers have ever signed with a third country.

The security and defence agreement opens the door to joint purchases of weapons with European countries and participation in the ReArm Europe initiative — which will allow Canada to access a 150-billion-euro program for defence procurement called Security Action for Europe.

Canada will need to sign a second agreement with the European Commission before it can take part in the program.

A government official briefing reporters on the trip said the partnership is expected to make procurement easier and more affordable, while also allowing Canada to diversify its sources of equipment.

At the EU-Canada summit, leaders are also expected to issue a joint statement pressing Russia to end its war on Ukraine through measures like further sanctions, and calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The joint statement is also expected to touch on climate change, trade and digital and tech policy.

De Wever said Canada's partnership with the EU is critical now because "we've woken up in a world that doesn't look that friendly anymore."

"We're living in a world where we have an imperialist power in the east who uses military force, we have a peculiar figure in the White House who is choosing the road of protectionism and even isolationism. So those who like a rules-based world, a multilateral world, should find each other's company now," the Belgian prime minister said.

De Wever said allies will need to spend more on defence and should do so wisely by developing their industrial defence bases together.

"Those countries who still like multilateralism are the countries that have to look up each other's company and make good agreements," he said.

Carney posted on social media early Monday that he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump overnight. He said the conversation addressed the need to de-escalate the conflict in the Middle East. Carney said he and Trump also spoke about trade and their shared commitment to a stronger NATO.

Carney has called for a "diplomatic solution" in the wake of U.S. strikes on three key nuclear facilities in Iran. In a statement Sunday, Carney called Iran's nuclear program a "grave threat" to international security and said Canada has been "consistently clear" that Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.

Speaking to reporters Monday, De Wever said he had no sympathy for the "evil" Iranian regime and called the country a "big sponsor of terrorism."

De Wever said that while there should be regime change in Iran, it would be preferable if it came through a democratic process and not one that "starts with bombing."

Leaders at the EU-Canada summit are also expected to discuss global trade and commit to working toward ratifying and implementing the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the Canada-Europe free trade deal known as CETA.

The pact took effect provisionally in 2017 and most of its contents now apply. But all EU countries need to approve CETA before it can take full effect; 10 members still haven't ratified the deal.

Carney, Costa and von der Leyen are scheduled to hold a joint press conference Monday evening.

On Tuesday, Carney travels to The Hague for the NATO summit. 

The international meetings come as Canada looks to reduce its defence procurement reliance on the United States due to strained relations over tariffs and Trump's repeated talk about Canada becoming a U.S. state.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick