This week marked the first ever visit to Luxembourg by a Canadian minister, in 81 years of diplomatic relations.

On Friday afternoon, Luxembourg's defence minister Yuriko Backes held a press conference alongside her Canadian counterpart, David McGuinty, declaring that people in both countries understand the need for investment in defence.

McGuinty said Canada wanted to strengthen its relationships with dependable partners, hence his visit to the Grand Duchy, amid ongoing tensions with the USA.

He said Canada intended to maintain a strong relationship with the US while expanding its defence partnerships with dependable allies. "When it comes to procurement or the production of military material, we're looking to work with like-minded countries", he said.

The Canadian minister said he remained hopeful that talks between the United States and Iran would lead to a final peace agreement, despite the difficulty of obtaining reliable information.

He added: "Today (Friday) should be the day when the agreement is signed and made public in detail. I remain hopeful. I think that is all we can do."

The former Luxembourg Prime Minister and one-time EU Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, told RTL last week that he was shocked at the self-evident manner when discussing high increases of the defence budget.

Backes in turn responded that she felt people understood that investment was necessary.

She argued that the public understood the need for greater defence spending, saying Europe's current vulnerability was partly the result of years of underinvestment in national and collective security. "The Americans are not going to continue to protect us in the way they have done in recent decades. If we want peace on our continent, we must be sure that we can defend ourselves", she noted.

Investments are necessary due to the situation in Ukraine, where 30,000–35,000 people are dying every month, said McGuinty – though investment is also crucial for the future. "Cyber-campaigns, Russian misbehaviour, which we have seen in Ukraine's neighbouring countries. There is a lot of work being done covertly and we are aware of this", he added.

This March, Canada achieved the NATO target of 2% of its GDP in defence. The budget for NATO countries should increase to 5% by 2035.