Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that the “new world order will be built from Europe” with his country playing a key role in comments that echo a speech earlier in the year interpreted as a criticism of President Donald Trump.
During a visit to Ireland, Carney said that that Canada was “the most European of non-European countries, and we are transforming our cooperation with the EU.”
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In January, Carney addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, taking aim at the erosion of the rules-based international order in comments which were seen as a pointed reference to Trump’s rhetoric.
Carney’s comments in Dublin on Saturday referred to a growing defense partnership between Canada and Europe.
It comes as the Trump administration seeks to reduce the American military footprint in Europe, in a move which has cast doubt on the role the U.S. has had since WW2 as the continent’s security guarantor. Trump has repeatedly lambasted NATO’s European members for not spending enough on defense.
“In February, Canada became the first non-European of the SAFE mechanism, an initiative by the European Union on defense procurement,” said Carney, referring to an EU financial instrument launched in May 2025 to boost defense spending and production.
The plan allows for loans of up to €150 billion ($173 billion) to help EU member states quickly boost defense investments through common procurement.
Carney also said that Canada had established 56 partnerships on critical minerals in more than 10 countries primarily in Europe, adding that “in a more dangerous and divided world, Canada has chosen to build and work in partnership with Europe.”
Carney had expressed a similar sentiment in May when he spoke at the European Political Community Summit in Armenia where he argued the new global order would be rebuilt from Europe.
He linked this to a Canadian push into defense, critical minerals, energy, digital infrastructure, space, semiconductors, payment systems, vaccines, and clean technology.
During a discussion at Trinity College, Dublin, on Saturday, Carney had said that Ireland and Canada were navigating a "global rupture" and that "Canada, Ireland, and Europe are increasingly and immediately vulnerable to once-distant threats.”
Carney added that the “strands” of a new world order could be woven at the G7 summit of the world’s biggest economies which takes place in Évian-les-Bains, France next week.
The Canadian prime minister had been praised for his speech at Davos in February in which he called on middle powers to band together in the face of great powers.
“We know the old order is not coming back,” he said back then, adding “we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just.”
He said this was the task of the middle powers which “have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and most to gain from genuine cooperation.”
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