Welcome, Prime Minister, dear Jonas. It is a great honour to host you in Canada and, to begin – and I can only begin to return the hospitality that you showed me in Norway last March – I would first like to reaffirm, though, my condolences, my personal condolences, and those of the Canadian people, to the people of Norway on the passing of King Harald, the Fifth. You gave me the honour of meeting him and the new king. King Harald was a unifying and a truly inspirational figure, and I’m confident that his legacy will continue to be built upon for generations. 

At our meeting in Norway in March, we strengthened our partnership in areas that are essential to our collective resilience, including security and defence in the Arctic, critical minerals, emerging technologies, and other, other issues.

At Bardufoss, we reviewed Canadian Armed Forces – I was particularly paying attention to the Canadian Armed Forces personnel – alongside their Norwegian, German, and other counterparts. That cooperation, this cooperation we saw there, continues with our coast guards now training together in Canadian and Norwegian waters, a series of efforts to improve across all our capacities, our interoperability, and strengthening them alongside each other.

Our cooperation, since we met in Norway, has also led to the start of an unprecedented reinforcement of Canada’s maritime capabilities. In the largest defence procurement in Canadian history, TKMS will build Canada’s next fleet of submarines and, in the process, do much more. In the process, deepen our military, industrial, and technological cooperation between Norway, Canada, and Germany. Cooperation, I’ll say to Canadians, that will yield tens of billions of dollars in new investment in every region of this country, creating an ecosystem that will create more than 100,000 high-paying Canadian jobs.

So, that’s the start of what we had earlier this year. We’re building on that momentum today, deepening our cooperation, for example, in Arctic science and research, developing a joint research agenda roadmap on climate data, research security, knowledge sharing. As part of this initiative, Polar Knowledge Canada and Norwegian Polar Institute are developing an agreement on both Arctic and Antarctic research. On defence, we will be – once the submarine contract is concluded – we’ll pursue an enhanced defence cooperation agreement at the level – this is the way Canada views it – at the level of our closest security partners, because that’s what we are. This will advance our military, industrial, and technological cooperation, bringing together what, in many cases, are unique capabilities for the purpose of our collective security and prosperity.

On space, our space agencies have finalized a new memorandum of understanding to improve coordination and information sharing, advanced space-based technologies, including, again, you guessed it, to reinforce Arctic… security in the Arctic and the High North. In parallel, Norway’s Kongsberg is partnering with Canada’s MDA Space and Telesat to help us better track in Arctic waters and improve secure communications in the High North.

And on critical minerals, we’re moving from our agreement in March to launch new geo-mapping, geoscience projects, combining data and expertise to identify critical mineral potential and move towards production. 

And finally, on ocean conservation, we’re strengthening our ocean observation systems and the supporting infrastructure to improve forecasting, early warning, and, of course, to protect our oceans and marine life. And in New York, in a few days, through the OceanEye International Alliance, we’ll continue to advance sustained ocean observation and protection.

So, we have made significant progress since our last official meeting in March, particularly in terms of joint defence procurement, security cooperation in the Arctic and the High North, as well as other initiatives to support the enhancement of our unique natural heritage. Today, we are taking further steps to ensure the security, resilience, sustainability, and prosperity of our countries. Thank you for being here.