Carney warns against courting Washington

DUBLIN — Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney continued his efforts to pivot away from the United States and align with Europe, meeting with the leader of Ireland on Saturday ahead of the upcoming G7 summit and saying middle powers should not compete for favor with Washington.

Carney said Canada and the European Union have a combined population of more than twice that of the US, economies of comparable size and a combined defense budget that exceeds that of any single major country outside the US.

Smaller countries can multiply their strength by partnering with like-minded allies, he said.

"In a world of great power rivalry, middle powers have a choice — to compete for favor or to combine to create a third path with impact," Carney said at Trinity College in Dublin.

He made similar comments in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which became a symbol of middle-power resistance, when he declared the end of the global rules-based order and condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries.

Carney visited Ireland's Taoiseach Micheal Martin earlier on Saturday and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday ahead of the G7 summit that begins on Monday in France.

US President Donald Trump is not currently scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Carney during the summit, according to a senior US administration official.

Geneva, Switzerland, is bracing for thousands of anti-G7 protesters ahead of the summit in Evian, just across the border with France.

Scores of shops and businesses in downtown Geneva boarded up their storefronts with wooden panels on Sunday ahead of the planned protests.

In Ireland, Carney described Canada and Europe as a "force for good — because we safeguard the values of human rights, dignity and pluralism that our people hold dear".

Together, the EU and Canada are one of the largest economic, cultural, technological, financial and military blocs in the world, he said.

"The new world order will be built starting with Europe," he said at an earlier joint news conference with Martin.

"Canada is the most European of non-European countries. We are transforming our cooperation with Europe."

In February, Canada became the first non-European member of the SAFE mechanism, the European Union's defense procurement initiative. Carney, on his ninth trip to Europe since becoming prime minister 15 months ago, noted that Canada has 56 partnerships in the critical minerals sector across more than 10 countries, primarily in Europe.

Tensions simmer

Trade tensions continue to simmer between Canada and the United States. There is a scheduled July 1 review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement — the latest iteration of the North American free-trade pact that has intertwined the economies of the three countries since the early 1990s. Trump said last week that he may not renew the deal.

Carney said Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc will meet with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the G7 summit.

The prime minister said he does not believe the US is interested in big changes to the free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.

"The US has been clear. They don't want to change the fundamental architecture," Carney said.

AGENCIES VIA XINHUA