The European Union’s foreign policy chief says tariffs between Western countries only serve China’s interests and is asking for higher defence spending to maintain Russia in check.
“If the USA is having a trade war with Canada, Mexico or the European Union, then who is de facto benefiting from that is China,” Kaja Kallas said in an interview Thursday with The Canadian Press.
Kallas, the previous prime minister of Estonia, is overseeing the EU’s approach to an alarming recent geopolitical climate — one where the U.S. hints at scaling back its commitment to defending NATO allies and pursues a trade war against Europe and Canada.
“We are attempting to maintain a cool head,” Kallas said.
“We’re also ready to actually defend our interests — however it can be our wish that we didn’t must take care of this, because we’ve so many other problems.”
Those problems include the primary large-scale land war in Europe in many years, budget crunches which have governments across the continent struggling to balance their books, and a spike in severe weather events brought on by climate change.
Those threats have led Europe to look to Canada for assist in shoring up supply chains for all the things from food to energy — areas covered under a free-trade deal that has been in effect since 2017.
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“We definitely must deepen our co-operation in those areas, especially by way of economic security,” Kallas said.
Europe can also be trying to Canada for co-operation on military matters.
Earlier this month, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to London for a European security conference on maintaining allies’ support for Ukraine’s defence.
Europeans are anxiously watching reports a couple of possible ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and a few countries have pledged to send troops and jets to keep up peace and forestall further Russian incursions.
Canada and the EU have been talking for nearly a yr a couple of possible security and defence partnership.
The pact could possibly be much like ones Brussels has signed with Japan and Korea that cover joint naval exercises, or its agreements with non-EU countries on underwater infrastructure.
Kallas said that the partnership with Canada would involve “necessary co-operation in terms of the defence industry” and setting standards on “investments in defence, in order that we work together and are able to help one another.”
She added that Europeans have no real interest in creating “parallel structures” to copy the NATO military alliance.
“The stronger Canada is, and the stronger European allies in NATO are, the stronger NATO is,” Kallas said.
Kallas’s home country, once a part of the Soviet Union, has had a tumultuous relationship with Russia for many years.
She said Canadians need to know that Russia is their next-door neighbour within the Arctic, a region that’s growing in geopolitical importance on account of its trade routes and demanding raw materials.
“Russia is an existential threat, not only to European security but actually global security,” she said.
“After we allow Russia to get away with the land-grabs and attacks that they’re doing on Ukraine, then all the things is at risk.”
Kallas said Europe and its peers must spend more on defence. Many NATO countries, Canada included, are falling wanting NATO’s defence spending goal of two per cent of GDP.
Some NATO allies have discussed higher defence spending targets of two.5 or three per cent of GDP. Kallas noted that Russia’s defence spending amounts to nine per cent of its GDP.
“If we will not be investing in our defence enough, then they’ll need to use this military force again,” she said.
“The one thing that deters them is strength — whether we’re strong enough in order that they don’t test us.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
