 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2010) |
 Canada |  Europe |
|---|---|
Canada has many diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties to the peoples and states of the European continent.
Prior the Second World War, this referred primarily to bilateral relations with particular countries. However, since 1945 Europe has become increasingly institutionalized, and the Government of Canada deals directly with the major European multilateral organizations.
Canada's relationship with Europe is a consequence of the historical connections generated by colonialism and mass European immigration to Canada. Canada was first colonized by Vikings on the shores of Baffin Island, plus those of Newfoundland and Labrador in the Middle Ages. However, centuries later in the Modern Age, it would be mainly colonized by France and, after 1763, it formally joined the British Empire after its conquest in the Seven Years' War. It also had colonial influence from Spain in British Columbia, plus southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Formal diplomatic ties were not possible between Canada and European countries when Canada was a collection of British colonies, but migration ties continued through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Traditionally, from the beginnings of Canadian diplomacy in the 1870s to the 1930s, Canadian contacts with European countries were limited. Canada was not fully independent of the British Empire in matters of foreign affairs. Therefore, Canada could not send ambassadors to European capitals but rather relied on the Canadian High Commissioner in London or the Canadian Legate attached to the British Embassies in Paris, as well as Washington to make contacts with European diplomats.
Travel between Canada and Europe for political leaders was also limited. This began to change during and following the First World War, when Canada was a member of the Entente Powers in alliance with a variety of European states including France, Belgium, Italy, and Russia, and sent troops to France and Belgium. Formal expression of this new relationship emerged after 1919 when Prime Minister Robert Borden attended the Paris Peace Conference, and when Canada joined the League of Nations and sent representatives to its headquarters in Geneva.
Canadian engagement with the League of Nations was relatively weak however, as the government of Mackenzie King mostly pursued a policy of isolationism, though King did begin to make overseas travel for prime ministers a more regular occurrence, including a visit to Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1937. [1]
With the onset of the Second World War Canada became intimately involved in the politics of Europe, as a member of the Allies, as a sanctuary for European refugees including the Dutch royal family, and with Canadian troops fighting in France, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands. Canada began raising the status of its missions in Europe from legations to embassies in 1944. Canada was a strongly Atlanticist state, and following the war, the new links were institutionalized through the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which bound Canada to defend any of the (Western) European members of the alliance if it was attacked by the Soviet Union. Relations with "Eastern Europe" (in the sense of the Warsaw Pact) were decidedly cooler.
Economically, Canada still dealt much more with the United Kingdom than the rest of the continent at end of the war, but this began to change quickly because of the post-war economic booms in France and West Germany combined with British relative decline. At the same time Canada's relations with the United States loomed ever larger, so that relations with UK were no longer so important as to be thought of as separate from European relations, as they had been before. This was confirmed by Canadian refusal to back Britain's position in the Suez Crisis of 1957, and Britain's entry into the European Economic Community in 1973 over Canadian (and Australasian) objections. Canada and Britain still continue to have close ties, however, based on shared history and culture, and share the same head of state and are both members of the Commonwealth.
Canada's commitments to the rest of Europe included NATO-related forces stationed in Germany and Norway, and a series of economic agreements with the EEC starting in 1976.
Since the end of the Cold War, Canada has expanded ties with Eastern Europe, including being the first western country to recognize the independence of the Baltic States and Ukraine from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Canada is still a member of the NATO alliance committed to defending its fellow members from an attack anywhere in Europe, however Canadian Armed Forces were withdrawn from Norway in 1989 and Germany in 1993 at the end of the Cold War. [2] [3]
Proposals for transatlantic economic and political ties, which Canadian hoped NATO would include in 1949, have not come to fruition. The European Union and the North American Free Trade Association instead represent two divergent trade blocs. However, Canada has signed a free trade agreement with the smaller European Free Trade Association in 2008.
Negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union concluded in August 2014. The agreement has only been provisionally applied because only 17 EU member states have ratified the agreement as of January 2024. [4] [5] If applied, the agreement would abolish 98 per cent of customs duties on all goods between the EU and Canada. [6]
After Russia's 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea, NATO members agreed at the 2016 Warsaw summit to deploy four multi-national battalion battle groups to the Baltic states and Poland. [7] Canada provided the core of the Battle Group Latvia through Operation Reassurance. As of 2023, approximately 1,100 Canadian Armed Forces members have been deployed to Camp Ādaži with a plan to deploy a Canadian Army tank squadron equipped with 15 Leopard 2 tanks and increasing the strength of the deployed force to 2,200 by 2026. [8] [9] [10] [11]
Foreign relations of Kazakhstan are primarily based on economic and political security consideration. The Nazarbayev administration has tried to balance relations with Russia and the United States by sending petroleum and natural gas to its northern neighbor at artificially low prices while assisting the U.S. in the War on Terror. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, North Atlantic Cooperation Council, Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and NATO's Partnership for Peace program. Kazakhstan established a customs union with Russia and Belarus which eventually became the Eurasian Economic Union. President Nazarbayev has prioritized economic diplomacy into Kazakhstan's foreign policy.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. The organization's motto is animus in consulendo liber. The organization's strategic concepts include deterrence.
Atlanticism, also known as Transatlanticism, is the ideology which advocates a close alliance between nations in Northern America and in Europe on political, economic, and defense issues. The purpose is to maintain or increase the security and prosperity of the participating countries and protect liberal democracy and the progressive values of an open society that unite them under multiculturalism. The term derives from the North Atlantic Ocean, which is bordered by North America and Europe.
European integration is the process of industrial, economic, political, legal, social, and cultural integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union and its policies.
The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany , more commonly referred to as the Two Plus Four Agreement , is an international agreement that allowed the reunification of Germany in October 1990. It was negotiated in 1990 between the 'two', the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in addition to the Four Powers which had occupied Germany at the end of World War II in Europe: France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty supplanted the 1945 Potsdam Agreement: in it, the Four Powers renounced all rights they had held with regard to Germany, allowing for its reunification as a fully sovereign state the following year. Additionally, the two German states agreed to reconfirm the existing border with Poland in the German–Polish Border Treaty, accepting that German territory post-reunification would consist only of what was presently administered by West and East Germany—renouncing explicitly any possible claims to the former eastern territories of Germany including East Prussia, most of Silesia, as well as the eastern parts of Brandenburg and Pomerania.
The original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry. The treaty proposed equal limits for the two "groups of states-parties", the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact. In 2007, Russia "suspended" its participation in the treaty, and on 10 March 2015, citing NATO's alleged de facto breach of the Treaty, Russia formally announced it was "completely" halting its participation in it as of the next day. On 7 November 2023, Russia withdrew from the treaty, and in response the United States and its NATO allies suspended their participation in the treaty.
Transatlantic relations refer to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes it specifically means relationships between the Anglophone North American countries, and particular European countries or organizations, although other meanings are possible.
Armenia and the European Union have maintained positive relations over the years. Both parties are connected through the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which was signed in 2017. Former Armenian foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan expressed confidence that the new partnership agreement would "open a new page" in EU–Armenia relations. Meanwhile, the former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini concluded in June 2019, that Armenia–EU relations are on an "excellent" level. Should either Georgia or Turkey, who are candidates for EU membership, accede to the EU, Armenia will border the European Union.
The bilateral relations between Canada and the United Kingdom have yielded intimate and frequently-co-operative contact since Canada gained independence in 1931. Canada was previously self-governing since 1 July 1867, the date that became Canada's independence day.
Diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the United States started in 1776 with the first salute at St. Eustatius's Fort Oranje and continues to this day as one of the oldest continual bilateral alliances in the western world. Today they are described as "excellent" by the United States Department of State and "close" by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Founding members of the North Atlantic Alliance and allies since John Adams's visit to the Netherlands in 1782, it is considered one of the strongest military and economic alliances in contemporary history.
Relations between Canada and the European Union (EU) and its forerunners date back to the 1950s. While the relationship is primarily an economic one, there are also matters of political cooperation. Canadians also use English and French — both European languages — as official and majority languages.
Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands have a special relationship resulting from actions during World War II when Canada hosted the Dutch royal family in exile and then led the military liberation of the Netherlands. The special relationship is still visible today, with the Canadian government describing the Netherlands as "one of Canada's most significant trade, investment and innovation partners." In part, the annual Canadian Tulip Festival still commemorates this relationship, with a tradition of tulips sent to Canada from the Netherlands as gratitude for the Canadian actions during World War II.
Canada and the Czech Republic maintain diplomatic relations. Canada has an embassy in Prague, while the Czech Republic has an embassy in Ottawa, a consulate general in Toronto and an honorary consulate in Calgary.
Canada and Latvia have long-standing foreign relations. During the 1920s, Canada helped Lithuania gain their independence with their victory in the war over the Baltics in Lithuania. Canada never recognized the Soviet Union's annexation of Latvia and re-recognized Latvia's independence on August 26, 1991.
The 1957 Paris summit was the first NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Paris, France took place on 16–19 December 1957. This was only the second meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is a free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union and its member states. It has been provisionally applied, thus removing 98% of the preexisting tariffs between the two parts.
Canada is a member of various international organizations and forums. Canada was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and formed the North American Aerospace Defense Command together with the United States in 1958. The country has membership in the World Trade Organization, the Five Eyes, the G7 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The country joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990, and seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canada ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and seven principal UN human rights conventions and covenants since then. As of 2023, Canada is a signatory to 15 free trade agreements with 51 different countries, and has diplomatic and consular offices in over 270 locations in approximately 180 countries.
The free trade agreements of Canada represents Canada's cooperation in multinational trade pacts and plays a large role in the Canadian economy. Canada is regularly described as a trading nation, considering its total trade is worth more than two-thirds of its GDP. Of that total trade, roughly 75% is done with countries that are part of free trade agreements with Canada—primarily the United States through the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), and its predecessor the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). By the end of 2014, Canada's bilateral trade hit Can$1 trillion for the first time. Canada is a signatory to 15 free trade agreements with 51 countries.
Anne Genetet is a French medical doctor and politician who has represented the 11th constituency for French residents overseas in the National Assembly since the 2017 legislative election. and was appointed Minister of National Education on September 21st, 2024. She is a member of Renaissance (RE), formerly the La République en Marche! (LREM).
Latvia and Sweden have bilateral relations dating back to at least 1776, when a Swedish consulate was established in Riga. Parts of Livonia fell under the Swedish Empire from 1621 to 1709, including the dominion of Swedish Livonia. The two resumed diplomatic relations on 28 August 1991, following Latvia's restoration of independence amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Latvia has an embassy in Stockholm while Sweden has an embassy in Riga. Both countries border the Baltic Sea and are members of the European Union, the Nordic-Baltic Eight, the Council of Europe and NATO, among other organisations.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)