The EU will sign new defence cooperation pacts with Australia, Iceland and Ghana “in the coming days”, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday (9 March).
Speaking at the EU’s annual ambassadors’ conference on Monday, Kallas said that “a growing number of countries around the globe are seeking to diversify their partnerships to manage the heightened risk.”
“There are many other interested countries knocking at our door,” said Kallas.
Though the EU’s foreign, defence and security policy depends on unanimity among the bloc’s 27 states, the commission has promised to make it easier for member states to ramp up defence spending.
Last year, Ursula von der Leyen’s commission set up the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) programme, which will offer up to €150bn in long maturity loans to EU countries to boost their defence spending up to two percent of GDP, in a bid to pacify Donald Trump’s criticism that EU countries are skimping on defence.
The project also features a defence procurement scheme worth up to €800bn.
The new loan and procurement programmes were drawn up after US president Donald Trump threatened to radically scale back Washington’s support for Nato’s eastern flank, and recent US threats against Greenland and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
But it has also brokered a series of defence cooperation deals with a handful of countries, including the UK, Canada and Japan.
The EU has also promised a defence and security agreement with India alongside a trade agreement that was signed by von der Leyen in February.
The arrangements with the likes of the UK, Canada and India are likely to lead to more joint naval and other military missions and open up the EU’s defence procurement market.
Ghana, first in Africa
The agreement with Ghana will be the EU’s first with an African state. Ghana’s foreign minister Samuel Ablakwa, who spoke at the Chatham House think tank in London on Monday, has said that its arrangement with the EU will focus on counter-terrorism.
However, critics say that the cooperation deals are largely symbolic, pointing to the limited detail on what they will change in practice.
Meanwhile, talks between the EU commission and the UK on giving British firms access to SAFE have foundered so far because of disagreements on how much the UK should pay for access.
Canada has agreed to contribute €10m as part of its agreement.
“Standing on our own feet does not mean standing alone,” von der Leyen told EU diplomats in her own speech, adding that “we also want to work with trusted partners around the world.”
“This is the core idea behind our Security and Defence Partnerships with countries from across the world,” she said.