Joint statement by Canada and Sweden on sustained engagement on critical raw materials, battery value chains and emerging technologies

The countries are working together to build economic resiliency and provide new market opportunities for Canadian and Swedish businesses

October 5, 2023 – Ottawa, Ontario

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and Ebba Busch, Minister for Energy, Business and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden made the following statement:

"During Minister Busch's visit to Canada, and her participation at the Sweden-Canada Innovation Days in Quebec with Minister Champagne, both ministers committed to working together and leveraging our strategic assets — our critical minerals, clean energy, and talent — to lead in the green and digital future, foster economic growth and well-paying jobs, and achieve our ambitious climate goals.

"Our countries have complementary industries and knowledge centres with leading innovative companies. We agreed to further develop our countries' bilateral cooperation to promote innovation, research, deployment of cleaner technologies including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and their supply chains. We anticipate increased business collaboration and opportunities to foster the development of strong ecosystems with innovative companies from our two countries.

"Enhancing our partnership is more important than ever given the current global challenges we face. The geopolitical and geoeconomic context following Russia's unprovoked and unjustifiable war against Ukraine and the increasing impacts of climate change have fundamentally altered the global energy landscape and accelerated the need for collaboration between like-minded and trusted partners. Sweden and Canada are committed to deepening and broadening our bilateral engagement to address these challenges, both now and in the future.

"As global leaders and pioneers in decarbonizing steel production, critical raw materials, EV batteries, and nuclear technologies like SMRs, we have a responsibility to encourage global adoption of advanced technologies that will help us build a strong, clean future.

"Our countries are witnessing rapidly growing trade and investment relations. In the last year alone we have significant commitments to do more in Canada by several Swedish companies. Ericsson announced a $470 million expansion in Canada in partnership with the Government of Canada, and Northvolt is partnering with Canadian firms and pension funds to build the world's greenest electric vehicle batteries in Canada. Another example is the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), based in Toronto, which recently launched its Nordic Hub in Sweden.

"Together, we are committed to exploring how to work closer together to further diversify and strengthen the resilience of our respective economies in order to minimize dependencies which can undermine self-determination.

"We reaffirm our commitment to further collaboration with other like-minded states around the world to accelerate the creation and deployment of innovative technologies that will create jobs and growth, and help us achieve our shared goals of a thriving net-zero future."