Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council

• The leaders of the 31 nations that comprise NATO made their way home on July 12, 2023, after concluding two days of highest-level diplomatic meetings.
• The Conversation asked him for his main takeaways form the leaders’ meeting and what it suggests about the future of NATO.

Ukraine gets some of what it wants

• Ukraine also secured further commitments to nonlethal assistance and training from NATO members.
• Ukraine was embraced by NATO publicly and given clear shows of support and bilateral assistance from key members of the alliance.
• And that shouldn’t be overshadowed by some of the noises of disappointment or talk of Ukraine not showing enough “gratitude” toward NATO members.

Stronger with Sweden after Turkey relents

• Before announcing that Ankara would no longer stand in Sweden’s way, Erdoğan had suggested that his compliance on Sweden might be conditional on the European Union’s looking favorably on Ankara’s own bid to join the economic union.
• Erdoğan’s about-face on Sweden allowed him to look magnanimous on the international stage, but it was likely rooted in domestic politics.
• It was notable that a day after Erdoğan’s announcement, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán signlaled that he too would now greenlight Sweden’s bid.

Back to adversary-based military planning

• The alliance also approved a pivot in how it will conduct defense planning and how it views its strategic goals and objectives.
• For the past 30 years, NATO planning has been geared around general threats rather than targeted at clear adversaries.
• And despite concern over the growing military threat from China, the Asian giant is not identified in the summit communiqué as a primary military threat to NATO nations.
• At the same time, the communiqué made clear that NATO is open to engagement with China.

• The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that he will travel to Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, to join Nordic Prime Ministers at their annual meeting from June 25 to 26, 2023, as a special guest.
• The members of the Nordic Council are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland.
• The prime ministers of all five Nordic countries will attend the meeting along with representatives of the devolved governments of the Åland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
• The Nordic Council of Ministers' vision is to make the Nordic region the most sustainable and integrated region in the world by 2030.

• Today, Minister Wilkinson delivered on this legislative commitment by introducing the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act, which will facilitate and promote the creation of sustainable jobs and support workers and communities in Canada in line as the world advances toward a net-zero future.
• These tables are a key part of identifying and pursuing the key economic opportunities across Canada, which will enable the creation of sustainable jobs.
• Require the creation of a Sustainable Jobs Secretariat to support the implementation of the proposed Act, support the Council and coordinate work across federal departments.
• Using key levers at the federal level, the Government of Canada is taking action to accelerate the growth of sustainable jobs.

• The Government of Luxembourg unveiled its intent to leverage SES’s high-performance, second-generation Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) system – O3b mPOWER – as a critical resilient satcom infrastructure for Luxembourg, its partners and NATO in the areas of defence and security, disaster recovery and more, SES announced today.
• The programme – MEO Global Services (MGS) – valued at €195 million over 10 years will authorise, when passed by Luxembourg parliament, the acquisition and operation of O3b mPOWER services.
• The open architecture and unique security features of the O3b mPOWER system enables governments to operate sovereign gateways and networks on a global basis.
• The satellite communication capabilities of SES’s O3b mPOWER will reinforce Euro-Atlantic joint deterrence and defence.