Canada’s push to broaden its security relationships has reached another concrete milestone. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre have agreed to move toward an enhanced Canada–Norway Defence Cooperation Agreement, deepening a relationship already expanding across submarines, Arctic operations, space, defence technology and support for Ukraine. The agreement itself is not yet complete, but both governments are placing it on the roadmap after Canada’s negotiations for a new submarine fleet progress. For Ottawa, the significance reaches beyond a single bilateral pact. Norway is becoming one part of a wider network of European and Nordic security relationships that Canada is developing while it continues its long-standing NATO and NORAD commitments, including continental defence cooperation with the United States.
A Defence Agreement Is Now on the Roadmap
Carney and Støre met in Ottawa on September 20 and announced their intention to pursue an enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement. The planned framework would build on a bilateral defence memorandum dating to 2023 and on the much broader strategic cooperation agenda the two governments established during Carney’s March visit to Norway. Ottawa’s readout said the leaders intend to advance work on the agreement in the new year, while their joint statement specified that the enhanced framework would be pursued following the conclusion of negotiations surrounding Canada’s Canadian Patrol Submarine Project. In other words, this is a significant political commitment, but not yet a signed final defence pact.
The scope could nevertheless become unusually broad. Canada and Norway are already cooperating on Arctic surveillance, military interoperability, research, space, defence procurement and industrial technology. Both are NATO members and Arctic states, giving them overlapping concerns in the North Atlantic and High North that go well beyond traditional diplomatic ties. Norway’s government described the next stage as closer defence cooperation involving additional joint training and operations in the Arctic. For Canadian planners, that could mean working more routinely with a military that has decades of experience operating in cold, remote northern environments rather than building every Arctic capability domestically from scratch.
The Submarine Decision Is the Anchor
The biggest force pulling Canada and Norway closer is underwater. In July, Canada selected Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, or TKMS, as the preferred supplier for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project. Ottawa is negotiating for as many as 12 Type 212CD submarines, a design being developed for Germany and Norway. The government has described the program as the largest defence procurement in Canadian history. Canada’s current Victoria-class fleet is approaching retirement, and the federal government said in July that only one of its four submarines was seaworthy at the time of the announcement.
The proposed schedule makes the partnership more than a conventional equipment purchase. Ottawa wants the first four replacements delivered by 2034, before the Victoria class is retired in the mid-to-late 2030s. Because Norway and Germany are acquiring the same basic submarine, Canada could potentially share training, maintenance practices, components and technical knowledge with two NATO partners over decades of service. The Canadian government says the 212CD is designed for Arctic operations and NATO interoperability, while Norway argues that common submarines would improve the three countries’ ability to monitor northern maritime areas. A final Canadian contract still has to be negotiated, meaning price, industrial participation and other contractual details remain important unresolved pieces.
The Arctic Is Where the Partnership Becomes Operational
The Arctic gives the Canada–Norway relationship a practical geographic purpose. NATO notes that seven of the eight Arctic states are now members of the alliance, and in February 2026 NATO launched Arctic Sentry to strengthen deterrence and defence across the region. Canada and Norway have separately agreed to establish a bilateral Arctic Dialogue covering areas such as surveillance, situational awareness, interoperability, research and development. This is happening as both countries devote more military attention to an area where extreme distances, limited infrastructure and harsh weather make routine operations unusually difficult.
Cooperation is already visible below the level of prime ministers. Canada and Norway expanded Coast Guard cooperation in 2026, including education, training and personnel exchanges, and the September leaders’ statement said their services had already undertaken joint training in Canadian and Norwegian Arctic waters. Canada has also expanded Operation NANOOK and other northern activities; one 2026 winter iteration involved roughly 1,300 Canadian Armed Forces personnel and nearly 200 vehicles and pieces of equipment. Norway, meanwhile, hosted Cold Response 26, which NATO said involved more than 32,000 personnel from 14 allied countries. Those numbers illustrate why Ottawa sees interoperability as more than diplomatic language: Arctic forces increasingly train as multinational formations.
Defence Industry Is Becoming Part of the Relationship
The emerging partnership is also designed to connect defence companies and supply chains. More than 50 Norwegian companies have established long-term operations in Canada, according to the September bilateral statement. One prominent example is Kongsberg, a Norwegian defence and technology group involved in the 212CD submarine combat-management system. Kongsberg and its partners announced a C$76.5-million investment with the British Columbia Institute of Technology to establish a Marine Innovation Simulation Centre of Excellence focused on marine technology, research, skills and capability development.
The relationship extends into weapons procurement as well. At the July NATO summit, Ottawa announced approximately C$800 million over eight years for Kongsberg Joint Strike Missiles intended for future Canadian fighter aircraft, including F-35s. Kongsberg has also signed arrangements involving Canadian maritime and space companies. These connections matter because Ottawa’s current defence industrial policy is increasingly built around combining Canadian production with technology and supply relationships from allied countries. Instead of viewing defence purchasing only as buying a finished platform from abroad, the government is trying to use major programs to create longer-term Canadian maintenance, technology, manufacturing and research capacity. Whether every promised industrial benefit materializes will depend on the contracts ultimately negotiated and how work is distributed over time.
Space and Surveillance Are Moving Into the Same Partnership
Modern Arctic defence depends heavily on satellites because enormous distances and sparse ground infrastructure make conventional communications and surveillance harder. Canada and Norway therefore signed a defence-space Letter of Intent in March covering areas including intelligence, research, capabilities and industry. National Defence says both countries already participate in the ten-country Combined Space Operations Initiative, alongside partners including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia and Japan. Ottawa and Oslo subsequently expanded the relationship through cooperation between their national space agencies.
Private-sector projects are developing beside those government arrangements. During Støre’s Ottawa visit, Kongsberg and MDA Space moved toward cooperation on multi-domain and space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, including maritime awareness in the Arctic. Kongsberg and Telesat also agreed to explore opportunities involving the Canadian company’s Lightspeed low-Earth-orbit satellite network. These deals intersect with Canada’s own expanding military-space program. Ottawa awarded Telesat a 2026 contract connected to Arctic military communications that will expand its Lightspeed constellation by 69 satellites, with MDA Space manufacturing the spacecraft in Montréal. The Canada–Norway relationship is therefore increasingly linking ships and submarines below the Arctic surface with communications and sensing capabilities hundreds of kilometres above it.
Ukraine Adds Another Operational Track
Ukraine is another area where Ottawa and Oslo are moving from parallel policies toward practical coordination. In March, the governments said the Canadian Commercial Corporation and Norway’s Defence Materiel Agency intended to establish a government-to-government mechanism that could facilitate purchases of military equipment for Ukraine. By September, the bilateral leaders’ statement said that partnership had been finalized. The two governments have also said they will continue coordinating military assistance, reconstruction support and sanctions enforcement, including efforts targeting Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.
That cooperation fits a wider Canadian effort to connect support for Ukraine with domestic defence capacity. Earlier in September, Ottawa announced new Canadian-Ukrainian initiatives involving drone production, uncrewed systems and defence technology, including initial contracts worth up to C$50 million intended to expand equipment available to Canadian forces. Canada and Norway are also working together on the humanitarian consequences of the war. Their September statement confirmed plans to co-host with Ukraine an international conference in Toronto focused on returning Ukrainian children, detained civilians and prisoners of war. The result is a bilateral defence relationship that extends from Canada’s own Arctic requirements to European security and Ukrainian procurement.
Canada Is Diversifying Without Leaving Continental Defence Behind
The Norway initiative fits a visibly broader Canadian effort to deepen security relationships outside the traditional Canada–U.S. channel. Days before Støre’s Ottawa visit, Carney announced that Canada had formally applied to join the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, whose existing members include Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands and several Baltic countries. Canada has also joined the Global Combat Air Programme as an observer and has been expanding defence, industrial and strategic cooperation with the European Union and individual European states. Ottawa describes the approach as diversification and greater strategic resilience.
That should not be confused with Canada abandoning U.S. defence cooperation. The Department of National Defence’s 2026–27 plan explicitly says Canada will continue working closely with the United States on North American defence and the modernization of NORAD. Ottawa is investing C$38.6 billion over 20 years in NORAD modernization, and even defence technology sourced from other allies can feed into that system. Canada’s Arctic over-the-horizon radar partnership with Australia, for example, is intended partly to strengthen continental defence and contribute to NORAD. The emerging model is therefore more accurately described as adding partners around an enduring North American defence relationship rather than replacing that relationship altogether.
The Biggest Details Still Have to Be Negotiated
The September announcement establishes direction more clearly than detail. Neither government has published a final text describing exactly what an enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement would require, which military units it would cover, what legal authorities it might provide or how costs would be divided. The joint statement deliberately links the next stage to completion of negotiations for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project. Ottawa has said it aims to conclude the submarine contracting process no later than the end of 2027, although the leaders have indicated they want to begin advancing the broader defence agreement sooner.
What is already clear is the architecture taking shape around it. Canada and Norway now have cooperation involving submarines, Coast Guards, Arctic exercises, space, defence companies, missiles, critical minerals, research and Ukraine. They also participate together in a wider 12-country maritime initiative announced at the 2026 NATO summit to increase European and Canadian responsibility for security in the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea and Arctic while coordinating with the United States. The proposed bilateral agreement could knit many of those separate activities into a more durable framework. Its real significance, however, will ultimately depend on the commitments contained in the negotiated text and whether years of announcements translate into sustained operations, procurement and industrial cooperation.
