ÉVIAN-LES-BAINS, France, June 15, 2026 — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Sunday that Canada has become the first non-European nation to join SAFE — the European Union’s Security Action for Europe joint defence readiness initiative — and that a Montreal-based defence company has already won the program’s first Canadian contract, worth more than $10 million, to build tactical radios for Poland’s Cyber Command.
“Canada is the first non-European nation to join SAFE — the EU’s joint defence readiness initiative — and we’re already seeing results,” Carney wrote on X. “Because we joined, Montréal-based Marconi Technologies will build made-in-Canada tactical radios for the Polish Cyber Command. This contract is worth more than $10 million and will benefit nearly 100 Canadian suppliers, their workers, and their families.”
What SAFE Is
The Security Action for Europe is a €150 billion EU loan instrument established under the Readiness 2030 framework — the European Union’s most ambitious defence industrial mobilization effort since the bloc was founded. SAFE provides low-interest loans to EU member states for joint procurement of priority military capabilities including ammunition, cyber systems, drones, air defence, and communications equipment. By pooling procurement demand across member states, SAFE is designed to generate economies of scale that reduce costs and accelerate industrial production.
The programme was created in direct response to the security environment created by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the recognition that European defence industries needed to dramatically scale up production capacity. The EU Council concluded the agreement with Canada on June 15, confirming Canada as SAFE’s first non-European participant — a status made possible by the Canada-EU Security and Defence Partnership signed in June 2025 and the subsequent SAFE participation agreement signed in February 2026.
The Marconi Technologies Contract
The first tangible result of Canada’s SAFE membership is a contract awarded to Marconi Technologies — a veteran-led, Montreal-headquartered defence communications company — to deliver Orion X650 tactical radios to Poland’s Cyber Command. The multi-year contract, running through 2030, is valued at more than $10 million Canadian and involves nearly 100 Canadian suppliers across the supply chain, according to Carney’s office.
The Orion X650 is a tactical communications system designed for military field operations, offering encrypted voice and data transmission capabilities suited to the kind of cyber-electromagnetic warfare environment that Poland’s Cyber Command is preparing for. Poland has been one of NATO’s most aggressive defence spenders — committing 5 percent of GDP to defence — and has been rapidly modernizing its military capabilities in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and its status as a frontline NATO state sharing a border with both Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus.
How Canada Got Into SAFE
Canada’s path to SAFE membership began with the Canada-EU Security and Defence Partnership signed in June 2025 — a foundational bilateral agreement that opened the door to deeper defence industrial cooperation. Carney’s government subsequently negotiated SAFE participation terms, concluding those negotiations in December 2025, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The formal SAFE agreement was signed on February 14, 2026, making Canada the first country outside the European Economic Area to participate in the programme. Under the terms of the agreement, Canada pays a financial contribution for access to SAFE’s procurement framework and its member states’ joint demand — but Canadian defence companies can bid on contracts generated by the programme, as Marconi Technologies has now demonstrated.
The Strategic Context
Canada’s SAFE membership is part of a broader strategic reorientation under Carney’s government toward deeper defence industrial integration with European allies. The move comes as the Trump administration has been pressing NATO allies to dramatically increase their own defence spending and reduce dependence on U.S. military support — a posture that has pushed Canada and European nations toward each other as co-investors in independent defence capacity.
The announcement at the G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains — where defence spending and burden-sharing have been central agenda items alongside the Iran deal — was strategically timed. Carney used the same G7 platform to signal that Canada is actively deepening its defence industrial ties with Europe even as the U.S.-Canada relationship has been strained by Trump’s tariff policies and his repeated suggestions that Canada should become the 51st state.
Benefits Beyond the Contract
Carney’s emphasis on the contract’s benefit to “nearly 100 Canadian suppliers, their workers, and their families” reflects the domestic political dimension of Canada’s SAFE membership. Defence industrial contracts generate skilled manufacturing employment — exactly the kind of high-value jobs that Carney has made central to his economic agenda. The Marconi Technologies contract, while modest in overall dollar value, serves as a proof of concept that SAFE membership can translate into tangible Canadian economic benefits within months of the agreement’s formal conclusion.
If the framework delivers additional contracts at scale — SAFE’s €150 billion loan facility creates substantial procurement demand across EU member states — Canadian defence companies could gain significant new export market access to European militaries that are in the midst of the largest rearmament effort since the Cold War. For a country whose defence industry has historically been heavily dependent on U.S. procurement relationships, SAFE represents a meaningful diversification of market access at a moment when those U.S. relationships are under political strain.