Carney heads to Arctic war games as NATO flexes muscle in Norway

Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Yellowknife on Thursday before heading to Norway and the United Kingdom for meetings with allied leaders.

While in Norway he'll travel north beyond the Arctic Circle this weekend to observe NATO's massive biennial Cold Response training exercise, which is taking place against a backdrop of heightened international tensions, including the ongoing war in the Middle East between the United States and Israel and Iran.

Accompanying the prime minister to the military exercise will be his Norwegian counterpart and the chancellor of Germany.

Both countries are backing a bid by German submarine-maker TKMS to sell Canada new subs, but senior government officials said Wednesday the multibillion-dollar program is not on the agenda.

Both TKMS and South Korea's Hanwha Ocean, the other company in the running, have submitted their bids to the federal government, which is expected to make a swift decision.

During the visit, the first by a Canadian prime minister to the Nordic country since 1980, Carney will also meet with northern European leaders, including those from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

It's being billed as a Nordic summit by the Norwegians — a meeting that will give Carney a chance to expand in person on his speech in Davos, Switzerland, where he said middle powers need to start co-operating more closely.

The trip will end with a visit to the U.K., where Carney is expected to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at No. 10 Downing Street, the official residence. The U.S. war with Iran and the oil crisis it has precipitated will likely be a focal point of the discussion.

Carney and Starmer both participated in a virtual meeting of G7 leaders on Wednesday where they condemned Iran's strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gulf states and underscored the need to prevent the conflict from spiralling out of control.

Canadian troops are participating — alongside approximately 25,000 soldiers from 14 nations — in the Norwegian-led Cold Response.

Senior government officials, speaking on background Wednesday ahead of the trip, said spending time observing and meeting with troops and commanders will help inform Canada's own Arctic policy and defence posture.

"It's very difficult terrain. It is cold, very sort of inhuman circumstances and geographic conditions," said one official.

"I think it's first to gain an understanding of what we are facing as we go forward in different crises and conflicts, what our military capacity might need." 

Michael Byers, an expert in the Arctic and geopolitics at the University of British Columbia, said there's also a political signal being sent with the trip and the meeting with Nordic leaders.