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Carney to address Australia's parliament and shore up a 'natural partner'
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is taking his message that middle power countries must form new coalitions to counter the United States’ power to Australian lawmakers today.
He will also become the second Canadian prime minister to address Australia’s parliament and pay the country a visit in nearly two decades.
Carney, who was previously in India and is next set to travel to Japan, is in Australia to signal that he wants to work more closely with like-minded middle powers, at the same time as he tries to expand Canada’s trading ties with countries that it has historically had less in common.
Speaking at a Sydney-based think-tank before travelling to Australia’s capital, the prime minister said he expects to strike agreements that will show how both countries intend to work closer on issues including critical minerals, artificial intelligence and defence.
“Middle powers have more power than many realize,” Carney told the crowd at the Lowy Institute. “Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea — this coalition has a GDP larger than the United States, three times the trade flows of China,” he said.
He also emphasized the importance of countries working together strategically on a topic-by-topic basis. “Different coalitions for different issues.”
Since delivering his speech at the World Economic Forum back in January, Carney has emerged as a kind of poster prime minister for middle power countries grappling with the uncertainty and volatility of dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The message around sovereignty, accepting how the rules-based order was no more and underscoring the importance of uniting against “hegemons” has earned Carney international applause, including in Australia.
Defence is a major area his government sees as where it can working more closely with Australia on, given that both countries belong to the same Five Eyes intelligence sharing network.
Carney was set to depart Sydney for Australia’s capital of Canberra on Thursday local time. Later that day, Carney will meet with Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as well as other with members of his cabinet and address the country’s parliament.
His trip to Australia is the first one that a Canadian prime minister has made since 2007, when former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper last made the trek.
After that, the last time Harper set foot in Australia as prime minister was when the country hosted the G20 leaders’ summit in 2014.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau never made the trip, which Carney was invited to do months ago, hoping to shore up relationships with countries Canada regards as like-minded middle powers and remind them that, as one senior official said, “we’re not making assumptions.”
“Sometimes it’s easy to take your closest allies for granted,” said the official, who briefed reporters on a not-for-attribution basis.
Carney has called Australia “natural partner” for Canada.
National Post
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