Canada wants more backers for global defence bank, foreign minister says

By Jonathan Spicer

ANKARA, July 7 (Reuters) - Canada wants more countries to back its global defence bank initiative before it announces a roster of founding nations, foreign minister Anita Anand said in an interview on the sidelines of the NATO leaders' summit in Ankara on Tuesday.

Mark Carney's government has been promoting the multilateral Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) and had been aiming to unveil around 10 national backers at the NATO summit, the country's lead negotiator told Reuters last week.

The bank's purpose is to bolster the defence of allied nations by raising up to £100 billion ($134 billion) in cheap finance.

"We want more and more countries to come on board before we put something out," Anand said. Discussions were ongoing and the project still had a "critical mass" of support, she added, echoing prior comments by Carney.

The summit, attended by Carney, runs Tuesday and Wednesday.

FATE IN THE BALANCE

The project’s fate remains in the balance without broader support from other nations, who are being asked to provide startup capital.

Anand did not name those in talks but said Luxembourg — the project's only other public backer — had put in significant effort.

"We're still in discussions with many of these countries. Of course, we have a critical mass of countries now, but the more the merrier as it is in terms of ensuring that SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) have the capabilities to ramp up," she said.

The DSRB is aiming to secure a triple-A credit rating, allowing it to provide low-interest loans to fund defence projects, particularly for nations and companies that currently struggle to access cheaper finance.

It also plans to provide loan guarantees to private banks to support defence industry scaling.

($1 = 0.7469 pounds)

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, Writing by Iain Withers, Additional reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)