Carney charts a new course, thumbs down Trump's Golden Dome plan, Canada confirms joining ReArm Europe plan

Time of India

7 days ago

Also Read: SpaceX's 9th Starship rocket loses control during test flight; what went wrong this time?Canada, geographically entwined with the US and depending massively on its military power for protection from external threats, is slowly moving towards forging newer defence ties with Europe. Canada's Prime Minister
Mark Carney
on May 27 even set the deadline - July 1 - of joining ReArm Europe, a major European defence rearmament plan, in an interview with CBC.
Just hours later US President
Donald Trump
exhorted Canada to join as America's 51st state and come under the proposed
Golden Dome missile defence
umbrella for free else be ready to shell out $61 billion. The proposal, which Trump claimed was being considered by the Carney government, was promptly shot down by the Canadian Prime Minister's Office.
Taking a cue from Trump, who has been claiming that US has been paying for the defence of its allies, Carney during the CBC show stated that a major part of Canada's military spending is going to the US. "Seventy-five cents of every dollar of capital spending for defence goes to the United States. That's not smart," Carney said in the CBC interview.
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Canada's sovereignty non-negotiable
Carney had on May 6 during his meeting with Trump at the Oval Office in White House had categorically stated that Canada was "not for sale" after the US President had constantly ratcheted up the tempo on economically and politically annexing his northern neighbour.
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King Charles III
, too, in his Speech from the Throne to the Canadian Parliament on May 27 pointed out the plan to join the ReArm Europe programme.
"The Government will protect Canada's sovereignty by rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces. It will boost Canada's defence industry by joining ReArm Europe, to invest in transatlantic security with Canada's European partners. And it will invest to strengthen its presence in the North, which is an integral part of Canada, as this region faces new threats," said King Charles III.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union has been working to strengthen its defences. The move has gathered momentum in recent months after Trump warned the US will pull out of
NATO
if the European nations part of the alliance did not increase their share of financial contribution.
The EU will spend $1.25 trillion under the
ReArm Europe plan
to bolster its on defence over the next five years.
Moving out of US defence umbrella?
Canada has in the last few month been exploring new avenues and partnerships to bolster its defence in a move to lessen its dependence on the US. The move to decouple its defence dependency has gathered momentum after Trump came to power for his second term.
While the Trump proposed Golden Dome is still a plan and will cost several billions to fructify with the time frame of its full deployment several years away, Canada has made it clear that it will not accept the missile shield at the cost of its independence.
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Canada is also have second thoughts on arming its air force with the US
F-35 Lightning II
stealth fighters. The decision to not put all its eggs in the F-35 basket was first echoed by the then defence minister Bill Blair in mid-March 2025.
"It was the fighter jet identified by our air force as the platform that they required, but we are also examining other alternatives - whether we need all of those fighter jets to be F-35," Blair had said in a CBC show.
Neither PM Carney nor the new Defence Minister David McGuinty have contradicted Blair's stand on the F-35. The stand on F-35 was outlined after Trump unleashed his tariff wars and threatened to annex Canada and make it the 51st US state.
Canada had in June 2023 signed a $19-billion deal with the US to purchase 88 F-35s and paid an advance for the first 16 stealth fighters which will be delivered by early 2026.
However, the two neighbours maintain a strong relationship jointly operating
North American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD). The command is tasked with tracking and defending the North American airspace and territorial waters against external threats.