In none of his more than twenty inaugural visits as chancellor has Olaf Scholz put in so much effort as he did on his trip to Canada. The head of government is not only accompanied by Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck and a large business delegation, but also takes a full three days to visit. The northern neighbor of the USA has not even half as many inhabitants as Germany.
And yet there are many good reasons for the special interest and investment in maintaining relations with the second largest country in the world: Germany needs different energy suppliers than Russia, including new energy sources, and it needs important raw materials for the energy transition. “The country has similar rich mineral resources as Russia – with the difference that it is a reliable democracy,” said Scholz before departure.
After all, after the shock of Germany’s dramatic economic dependence on the autocrat Vladimir Putin, the traffic light coalition wants to expand trade with other democracies. The closer cooperation should strengthen the own side in the system competition with states like Russia and China.
Justin Trudeau is a confidante for Scholz
In addition: For Olaf Scholz, his host Justin Trudeau is a confidante. Five and a half years ago, long before he became chancellor, the then mayor of Hamburg had invited the prime minister from Ottawa as a guest of honor to the traditional Matthiae meal in the Hanseatic city.
That was a signal against populism in February 2017, a month after Donald Trump took office. And it was a commitment to free trade. Shortly before, the European Parliament had approved the economic and trade agreement between the EU and Canada, or Ceta for short, which the SPD and the Greens in Germany had long viewed extremely critically.
It was also due to this good relationship that the government in Ottawa recently ignored its own concerns and granted the export license for the gas turbine to Germany, which Nord Stream operator Gazprom had sent to Canada for an overhaul.
Trudeau’s cabinet is also in a similar dilemma in view of the wishes of the German guests for the delivery of Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG). The necessary infrastructure, such as pipelines and terminals for transport by ship to Germany, is currently lacking for quick business. In addition, expanding the promotion of this fossil energy is in contradiction to one’s own climate goals, environmentalists warn of new interventions in nature.
Not an easy decision for Canada’s government
Therefore, both sides want to sign an agreement on cooperation in the production and transport of green hydrogen, because it can be produced with renewable energies. Canada wants to export this type of energy on a large scale in the future, but still has to create the technical prerequisites for this.
All in all, every effort to achieve even closer relations with Canada is worthwhile and is in the common interest. Against the concerns of the Greens in particular, the traffic light coalition decided before the summer break to finally ratify the Ceta free trade agreement with Canada. Sometimes changing times makes you smarter.
