German-Canadian relations are based on common values and shared fundamental convictions.

At political level, bilateral relations are characterised by active cooperation in international organisations and a shared commitment to preserving the rules-based international order, e.g. in fields such as security, disarmament and human rights, as well as regarding climate, raw materials and energy policy. Numerous high-level visits, most recently by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (August 2022) and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (April 2023) underscore these close relations.

Bilateral trade, and trade with the EU as a whole, has increased considerably in the past few years. From the point of view of the Federal Government, this is in no small part due to CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU, which has been provisionally applied since 21 September 2017.

When it comes to cooperation in science and research, Canada is one of Germany’s most important partners worldwide. More than 1000 bilateral collaborations have been established between German and Canadian research and intermediary organisations, universities and the private sector since the signing of the German-Canadian Intergovernmental Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation in 1971. Current priority research areas under these auspices are natural resources, energy, the environment (including Arctic and oceanic research), modern manufacturing technologies, as well as information and communication technologies with a focus on artificial intelligence and health research.

Thanks to the Youth Mobility Agreement (YMA) between Germany and Canada, young Germans and Canadians aged between 18 and 35 can spend up to a year in the partner country in order to gain work experience, travel or gain insights into culture and society.

Canada demonstrated its solidarity with the Federal Republic of Germany during the Berlin blockade and while Europe and Germany were divided, stationing a total of over 300,000 soldiers in Germany between the end of the Second World War and 1993.