Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and British counterpart Andy Burnham prepare for a bilateral meeting at Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool, England, on Wednesday.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Canada and Britain are in talks about merging their separate defence financing initiatives, potentially creating a larger effort backed by more countries.
Prime Minister Mark Carney flew to England on Wednesday night to meet British Prime Minister Andy Burnham for the first time at a soccer match in Liverpool, with talks about the Canadian-led Defence, Security and Resilience Bank high on the agenda for their short meeting.
Under former prime minister Keir Starmer, Britain rejected requests to join the DSRB initiative, but now Canadian officials are growing confident that Mr. Burnham’s new government will take part, a senior official said.
That is now expected to take the form of a linking of Britain’s own initiative, the Multilateral Defence Mechanism, which Canadian officials see as largely complementary.
The Globe and Mail is not naming the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the talks.
The DSRB initiative is backed by the leaders of Canada, Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. The Multilateral Defence Mechanism is supported by Britain, the Netherlands, Finland and Poland.
Mr. Carney travelled to Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday to attend the State of the Union address delivered to the European Parliament by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Prime Minister will address the Parliament on Thursday, but flew to England on Wednesday to meet Mr. Burnham in Liverpool at the home ground of the soccer team that Mr. Carney supports, Everton.