Canada submarine deal good news for German economy, politicians say

By Friederike Heine and Maria Martinez

BERLIN, July 7 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil ‌said on Tuesday that Canada's decision to select ‌Germany's TKMS to build up to 12 submarines for its navy was good news for Germany's economy and collective security within NATO.

"With this news, we will be sending a strong signal in support of transatlantic and European cooperation at the start of ‌the summit," Merz said ⁠in Berlin, referring to a NATO summit in Ankara starting on Tuesday.

"For this is truly ⁠a strategic initiative that will bind Canada, Germany and Norway together as partners in the North Atlantic region for decades to come," he added.

TKMS, majority-owned by German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp, beat out ‌a competing offer from South Korea's Hanwha Ocean.

"This is a signal for this location as a whole, for Made in Germany: that we prevailed in a tough international competition of this scale speaks for our engineering skill, for our ‌manufacturing expertise, for the know-how, and for what can be done at the sites here," Klingbeil said.

He added that the agreement goes ‌far beyond the economic deal and it also has geopolitical implications.

"At a time when the world is reorganizing itself, having Canada and Norway at our side, and strengthening these ‌alliances even further, is something very important," Klingbeil said.

(Rerporting by Maria Martinez and Friederike Heine, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Linda Pasquini)