When I arrived in Canada, someone put two books by Walter Stewart in my hands. One was But Not in Canada (1976), which punctured the comfortable belief that the world's troubles stopped at the border. The other was As They See Us (1977), in which Stewart invited the foreign correspondents posted here to describe the country they were actually covering.

The premise of the second book was Sartre's old theatre line turned hospitable: if hell is other people, it is because other people see us — and it is worth knowing what they see.

We wrote about that gaze in these pages in January, watching Davos land in a dozen languages. What follows is the same exercise Stewart performed in 1977, updated by half a century: the eyes have moved from American newsrooms to European ones, and nobody has to commission the correspondents anymore. They publish daily. All we did was read.

In the two weeks around the NATO summit in Ankara, Canada was front-page news in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne, Amsterdam, Geneva, Zurich and Luxembourg — in German, Dutch and French. Read together, the coverage is remarkable less for any single revelation than for its attentiveness. Europe is reading Canada closely, seriously, and in detail. Here is what they saw.

The submarine, as Germany tells it

For German media, the TKMS submarine award was an industrial and strategic story, and they covered it with a completeness that flatters both countries.

Before the decision, ARD's Tagesschau (German, Hamburg, July 3) followed Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil through the Wismar shipyard's hundred-million-euro pressure hull assembly line, where TKMS chief Oliver Burkhard described the Canadian order as the largest contract ever awarded to a NATO partner in conventional submarines.

Handelsblatt (German, Düsseldorf, July 3) reported the entire federal government advocating for the deal, with Klingbeil confident the arguments were on Germany's side. Deutschlandfunk (German, Cologne, July 6) relayed the Globe and Mail's reporting on the likely award a day ahead of Halifax, and read the timing as a signal from Canada to Washington on the eve of Ankara.

After the announcement, Die Zeit (German, Hamburg, July 6) detailed what Berlin had assembled around the bid: cooperation on raw materials, other economic projects, the approval of a merger between two AI companies; the full courtship, laid out matter-of-factly for German readers as the normal anatomy of a strategic partnership. Tagesschau (July 7) carried Defence Minister Boris Pistorius describing what the three nations now build together: the world's largest and most modern conventional submarine fleet, twenty-four boats whose intelligence from the North Atlantic, the Arctic and the High North can be quickly shared, analyzed and used. Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the decision a strong sign of transatlantic and European cooperation.

A Canadian reading the German file learns something valuable: how the partnership looks from inside the partner's house, price tags, hopes and all. It is a fuller portrait of our own procurement than we gave ourselves — and a warmer one than we might expect.

Ankara, in Dutch stereo

Dutch coverage of the summit came in two registers, and both are worth hearing.
De Telegraaf (Dutch, Amsterdam, July 6) and RTL Nederland (Dutch, Amsterdam, July 6) carried Secretary General Mark Rutte's pre-summit accounting: European allies and Canada now investing around four percent of GDP in defence and security, some 258 billion dollars in additional spending across 2025 and 2026, the alliance on its way to the five percent pledged at The Hague. RTL added the weather report: allies who under-invest can expect American displeasure.

Trouw (Dutch, Amsterdam, July 6) looked under the average. Columnist Cees van der Laan noted that Germany, the Baltics, Scandinavia and Poland sit comfortably above the line — while Canada, France, Italy, Britain and Belgium hold their positions above two percent through what he called ingenuity and improvisation. It is a candid audit from a friendly quarter, the kind an honest accountant gives a client he intends to keep. Better to hear it from Trouw in July than from an alliance review in December.

Handelsblatt (German, Düsseldorf, July 3) rounded out the alliance picture with Supreme Allied Commander Alexus Grynkewich praising the speed with which European allies and Canada filled the gaps after Washington withdrew carriers, supply ships and aerial refueling from the continent in June. And Die Weltwoche (German, Zurich, July 2) recorded Rutte's lobbying arithmetic in Washington: three hundred billion dollars in European and Canadian arms contracts with American firms, nearly two hundred thousand US defence jobs: the alliance making its case to its largest member in that member's favourite currency.

L'essentiel (French, Differdange, June 30) covered the production challenge with Rutte observing that money alone stops neither missiles nor tanks and must become combat-ready capability, quickly; and, in its comment section, preserved something the elite press rarely records: readers who would rather the money made peace. The full European conversation includes that voice too.

The courtship, in three languages

Three items, read together, describe a relationship deepening faster than most Canadians realize.

Die Weltwoche (German, Zurich, July 6), reporting on France's reduced allocation from the EU's Safe defence fund, noted almost in passing that among third countries only Canada currently meets the fund's requirements — a security and defence partnership with the EU concluded, a financial contribution made. Canada stands inside Europe's defence-industrial financing architecture on terms Britain has not yet secured. That is a considerable compliment, delivered in a Zurich weekly's subordinate clause.

Le Quotidien (French, Esch-sur-Alzette, June 19) marked Defence Minister David McGuinty's visit to Luxembourg as historic — the first by a Canadian federal minister since diplomatic relations began in 1945 — with discussion of the future Defence, Security and Resilience Bank and a warm account of shared priorities. Canada, the headline said simply, an important ally.

RTS (French, Geneva, July 4) supplied the affectionate frame for all of it. From Eurovision to the European Broadcasting Union, Canada's signals toward Europe are read as deliberate strategy, and Europe's response as its mirror. European affairs consultant Yves Bertoncini offered the image of the fortnight: Canada as the benevolent, affectionate American cousin — in contrast to an American uncle grown aggressive. In the realm of values above all, RTS concluded, the convergence holds: rule of law, democracy, protection of minorities, a middle power increasingly seen as the European Union's natural ally.

Stewart's correspondents in 1977 were often exasperated with us. These correspondents, on the whole, are courting us.

The candid friends

Affection does not preclude candour, and the file contains two useful doses.

Le Temps (French, Geneva, June 27) examined Ottawa's decision to itself assume the streaming-investment obligations of Netflix, Amazon and Disney rather than press them amid trade negotiations — an arrangement columnist Nicolas Dufour described as a curious invention: an obligation to invest that the companies are not obliged to honour, because the state honours it for them. He noted the decision had gone largely unnoticed. It is the kind of observation a country benefits from importing.

And NOS (Dutch, Amsterdam, May 6) reported the CBC/Radio-Canada investigation tracing twenty YouTube channels promoting Alberta separatism — forty million views, hired actors, AI-distorted voice-overs — to three Dutch nationals working for advertising revenue. The Dutch public broadcaster treated interference in a Canadian province's debate as a Dutch story requiring Dutch accountability. That, too, is what a friend's press looks like.

And one headed east

Handelsblatt (German, Düsseldorf, July 3) gave prominent treatment to the new Trans Mountain pipeline to tidewater — a million barrels a day toward Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indian demand, announced by the Prime Minister side by side with Premier Danielle Smith, with equal federal-provincial partnership and significant Indigenous ownership. Germany's business daily covered a Calgary press conference as world energy news, which is what it was.

Sources cited: Handelsblatt (German, Düsseldorf); Die Zeit (German, Hamburg); ARD Tagesschau (German, Hamburg); Deutschlandfunk (German, Cologne); Die Weltwoche (German, Zurich); Neue Zürcher Zeitung (German, Zurich); De Telegraaf (Dutch, Amsterdam); RTL Nederland (Dutch, Amsterdam); Trouw (Dutch, Amsterdam); NOS (Dutch, Amsterdam); L'essentiel (French, Differdange); Le Quotidien (French, Esch-sur-Alzette); Le Temps (French, Geneva); RTS Radio Télévision Suisse (French, Geneva).
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The views expressed are those of the author, Andrés Machalski, and do not represent the institutional position of MIREMS Ltd.