President Donald Trump spent months taking shots at Canada, referring to it as the 51st state and then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor,” all while engaging in a trade war.
But now, he needs Canada’s backing to build his $500 billion missile and air defense shield referred to as the Golden Dome.
“It’s something that we are looking at and something that has been discussed at a high level,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters Wednesday. “But not — sure, one negotiates on this.”
U.S. officials and experts said Canada would need to provide radar and airspace to help track incoming missiles in the Arctic that China and Russia are developing to fly over the North Pole, Politico said.
“What Canada really brings is terrain,” said Glen VanHerck, a retired Air Force general, to Politico. “If we can position, or Canada positions, over-the-horizon radars further north in the Arctic, that dramatically increases the United States and Canada’s ability to see over the pole into Russia, into China and other places.”
Canada and the U.S. already work together through the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, and its radars share information while also keeping Russian fighter planes at bay, Politico said.
VanHerck told Politico that Canada funds about 40% of NORAD investments, investing $38 billion to add new radars over the next two decades.
To build the Golden Dome, Canada would have to outfit its territory with more radars and interceptors and take a more active role in commanding air defenses, Politico said. Through a $4 billion pact with Australia for long-range radar, Canada will be adding additional detection devices in the Arctic and in NORAD, Politico reported.
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