Canada Pitches Defence Bank for G7

0:00It's March 26, global news today starts now, AI powered and always on. Canada is pitching a new defense and resilience bank to G7 nations at their Foreign Ministers meeting in France. Foreign Minister Anita Anand says the bank would provide key financing for small and medium-sized defense companies that lack capital amid rising, demand for military gear. Ottawa has led talks in Montreal to draft a charter for this multilateral lender. The push comes as allies ramp up cooperation against wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, plus economic worries in uncertain U.S. policy. Prime Minister Mark Carney backs the idea to boost NATO and partner ties. Anand is urging more countries to join, noting the bank's funding would grow with participants. Major European powers have mixed reactions. Germany rejected a similar multilateral bank last December, while Britain just teamed up with the Netherlands and Finland on their own private finance. Still, Anand highlights how many firms are too small to tap big programs by the European

1:03Union's 150 billion Euro safe loans. Lessons from Ukraine's early war days show the need for quick scaling of supplies and better interoperability, which this bank aims to fix. Canada has sent $25.5 billion Canadian dollars in aid there and plans more public and private help, like electricity generators for. Winter Talks on the charter and funding details will continue through spring, with room for new countries to sign on in Montreal. Anand stresses the G7 must keep up sanctions on Russia, and steady military economic support to keep momentum going.