Donald Trump says that Canada has asked to join the missile defense program that his administration is building, adding a new chapter to a long -term cross -border saga.
The president of the United States launched that news in the Oval office on Tuesday when he announced the initial plans for an American project of three years and $ 175 billion to build a multipurpose missile shield that is calling the gold dome.
“Canada has called us and want to be part of that,” Trump said. “They want to connect and want to be part of that.”
Canada will pay its “fair participation,” he added. “We will work with them in prices.”
Ottawa confirmed that he is talking to the United States about this, but added a warning. In a statement, the Federal Government issued missile defense discussions as not resolved and as part of the general trade and security negotiations that Prime Minister Mark Carney is having with Trump.
What this means is still extremely murky. It is not clear what would contribute exactly to Canada; which ones would include their responsibilities; what I would pay; And how different this agreement would be what Canada has already done under the NORADA de Canada-US system.
He refused to join
Canada has long participated in the follow -up of the American skies through NORAD, and feeds that data in the United States missile defense program.
But Canada officially joined the US missile program, which was a source of controversy in Ottawa in the early 2000s, when Prime Minister Paul Martin’s government refused to join.
That previous rejection means that Canadians can monitor the skies but not participate in any decision on when to launch a hypothetical strike against incoming objects.
The new developments have forced the problem of the agenda for a long time.
To begin with, UU. It is creating a new system to track various types of missiles: one more sophisticated and multiple layers than the iron dome of Israel, aimed at detecting intercontinental, hypersonic and shorter range cruises.
And this occurs when Canada’s sensors in the Arctic are aging. Canada has pledged to restore those sensors.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, presented on Tuesday the initial plans for an American project of three years and $ 175 billion to build a multipurpose missile shield called the Golden Dome. He said that Canada has asked to join the missile defense program and that the country will pay its ‘fair participation’. There were no immediate comments from Ottawa.
The interest of Canada’s rumors began months ago
The first public indication that these combined factors were to feed a policy change in Canada occurred in the public comments made earlier this year in Washington.
An American senator said, in February, that he had heard interest in the missile program of a Canadian colleague, then defense minister Bill Blair.
Blair publicly recognized the interest, saying that, given the updates planned by the United States and Canada, the association “makes sense.”
But the form of Canadian participation is not clear. The American commander of NORAD recently appeared to suggest that Canada’s participation will be limited to follow -up threats.
A missile defense analyst says that it sounds like an extension of the existing cooperation of Canada-states united through NORAD. Even so, says Wes Rumbaugh, it is interesting that Trump has chosen to get attention. Trump mentioned the role of Canada several times, without prior notice, during his announcement on Tuesday.
As for the term of three years of the president, Rumbaugh calls him a remote possibility. He predicts that only the part of the system could be built in that period, and that it will take more years and more funds to complete.
I could take a lot, much more funds. The Congress Budget Office estimates that this project could cost hundreds of billions more than the US $ 175 billion figure cited by the president.
“This is still a significant challenge,” said Rumbaugh, a member of the missile defense project in the group of experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“We are talking about a kind of next -generation missile defense system and widely improved. We are talking about an evolution of step change in the American antimile defense systems that will require a significant investment for a period of time potentially.”
Canada confirms the discussions of Golden Dome
Almost three hours after Trump’s announcement, Ottawa confirmed that the discussions are happening. A night statement from the Carney Office said that the Canadians gave the prime minister an electoral mandate to negotiate a new security and an integral economic relationship with the United States.
“To that end, the prime minister and his ministers are having broad and constructive discussions with their American counterparts,” the statement said.
“These discussions naturally include the strengthening of NORAD and related initiatives such as Golden Dome.”
A Canadian cabinet minister involved in similar discussions in the early 2000s says that it is time for the conversation to resume.
“I see this as a positive,” said David Pratt, a Liberal Defense Minister in Martin’s first cabinet.
He favored Canada’s participation in an antimile defense system in North America at that time, but says that the government collapsed for fear of political decline, with its fragile minority government.
He said the refusal to join had a cost. In part, NORAD lost part of its potential vocation, since missile interception became an activity only in the United States, and related research and manufacturing opportunities flowed to the United States, he said.
The specific application of the United States to Canada was never completely defined at that time, he said. Pratt recalls that the negotiations had been launched on what role would Canada play and if it would simply house sensors or also interceptors in their soil.
“I hope to see NORAD assume what should have been their legitimate role,” he told CBC News.
