MONTREAL: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the European Union\u2019s top official pushed Thursday to make Canada the bloc\u2019s first \u201cassociate member\u201d and build a broader alliance open to other countries as they warned of threats to sovereignty from economic coercion during US President Donald Trump\u2019s trade war.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Montreal on Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Canada and the EU would form the core of the proposed \u201cAlliance for the Future,\u201d but other like-minded countries would be welcome to join.<\/p>\n
Echoing Carney\u2019s warning at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, von der Leyen said economic relationships once considered sources of stability were increasingly being used as instruments of pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen trade becomes a tool of economic pressure, it is families that pay the price, from the supermarket shelf to the cost of a new car,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are seeing in real time our sovereignty being attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carney said the alliance would help Canada withstand economic shocks and prevent foreign governments and technology companies from dictating its choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does sovereignty matter in a dangerous and divided world? It allows us to withstand shocks,\u201d Carney said at a news conference. \u201cIt allows us to live our lives as we choose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Von der Leyen said the broader alliance would go beyond Canada\u2019s potential associate membership, focusing on critical minerals, resilient supply chains, defense and security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a wider concept,\u201d she said at a business roundtable alongside Carney. \u201cOther like-minded trusted partners are welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has suggested Canada\u2019s proposed EU arrangement could be a \u201chostile act\u201d and threatened tariffs on Europe if he considered it unfriendly. Asked Wednesday about possible retaliation, a senior Canadian government official told reporters the closer relationship was not directed against the United States but reflected longstanding shared interests.<\/p>\n
The White House said Thursday that US trade and commerce officials had held discussions with their Canadian counterparts in recent days. The statement came in response to a question about Canada\u2019s pursuit of closer ties with the EU.<\/p>\n
Carney played down the importance of the \u201cassociate member\u201d designation, which von der Leyen continues to champion despite resistance from some European governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new alliance is not a marketing exercise. The name doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Carney later used the term \u201cassociate member\u201d himself while sitting beside von der Leyen at a business roundtable, emphasizing the economic opportunities closer cooperation could create.<\/p>\n
The summit puts Carney\u2019s vision for a new global order to the test. At Davos, he warned that the US-led international order was breaking down and economic integration was increasingly being weaponized. He urged middle powers to unite against coercion by more powerful countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can no longer let ourselves be shackled by the limits of the old-world order,\u201d von der Leyen said Thursday. \u201cWe need to imagine partnerships that are built on trust and driven by common interests and beliefs. As Mark Carney has said, the international order will also be built from Europe, with Canada as part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MONTREAL: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the European Union\u2019s top official pushed Thursday to make Canada the bloc\u2019s first \u201cassociate member\u201d and build a broader alliance open to other countries as they warned of threats to sovereignty from economic coercion during US President Donald Trump\u2019s trade war. Speaking in Montreal on Thursday, European Commission …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":105127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105130,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105113\/revisions\/105130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}