‘Would Trump Welcome Canada-EU Alliance?’: Mark Carney’s Smiling Reaction Says It All

for both of you, if I may, at the outset. That's it. Would President Trump be welcome in the alliance for the future? Thank you. A bit more information, how much, when, would be very interesting to us. And a question for President von der Leyen, if I may. We've seen strong pushback from Germany on your decision to call this an associate membership for Canada and with elections across the European Union next year, seeming likely to return even less sympathetic governments. Are you not worried that in about a year's time all of this could be much more difficult, if not scrapped altogether? And a very short one for both of you, if I may, at the outset. Would President Trump be welcome in the alliance for the future? Your first question with respect to the Ukraine loan, about 500, the short answer is about 500 million euros, actually it is 500 million euros, will be our initial participation. This is a very important and effective mechanism and I actually commend the innovation of President von der Leyen, the Commission and President Costa in creating this using frozen assets in order to provide much needed financing for Ukraine. Of course, what comes behind that is tangible support for defence and reconstruction in Ukraine. We had a broader discussion of the broader financing needs and security needs of Ukraine, as we often do, as we meet. There's a number of other avenues with partners, and I'll make the point by way of illustration, if I could. Forgive me, it's not a perfect analogy, but it's illustrative. As you're aware, we are members of the Coalition of the Willing, as are many other countries. That is an example of an application of what would be an alliance for the future, in that there's a specific objective, which is to support the people of Ukraine, support the principles of territorial integrity, freedom, democracy. That is focused on, as you know, security guarantees, possibility. Through this mechanism, this ambition, this nucleus, to broaden that level of support using those mechanisms. And the only, what I would say, I'm going to pick up and then I will hand, reinforce something that President von der Leyen said, which is, this is a positive... This is a positive alliance. This is for things. It's about creating opportunity, building prosperity, addressing sustainability and reinforcing sovereignty. Why? So we can live our lives as we choose. Our people can live their lives as they choose and have the full freedoms that people enjoy in the European Union and enjoy in Canada. So it's not against anything, it's for. And those who choose to be for solutions. We'll be pleased with the result. And I can pick up here, indeed. There is a broad support and shared ambition among the member states, but you also experience it in the European Parliament, a vast majority that is for the fact to bring Canada closer to the European Union. We would have loved to discuss about membership, full-fledged membership, but it is impossible. We know that. And therefore, we are exploring the closest ever association. to the membership in the European Union and this is the start of an intense work that we see here. We have the vision, we have an idea, we have to develop the framework, we have to fill it with life now. But on one thing I'm absolutely sure, having spoken a lot about this idea in the last weeks, that is the broad support to have Canada much, much closer to the European Union. Subscribe to One India and never miss an update. Download the OneIndia app now.