Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada “strongly opposes” tariffs on countries opposing U.S. annexation of Greenland and that Canada’s commitment to the principle of collective defence — Article 5 — of the military alliance NATO is “unwavering.”
“On Arctic sovereignty, we stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future. Our commitment to NATO’s Article 5 is unwavering,” he said in a major foreign policy speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The rules-based international order, on which countries like Canada have depended for their security and prosperity since the end of World War Two, is fading, Carney warned.
“Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry. That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must,” Carney said.
Carney said for decades, Canada prospered under this rules-based international order, even though it “knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false.”
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“This fiction was useful, and American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods,” Carney said.
Carney said Canada benefited from the system of global American hegemony and therefore “avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.”
“This bargain no longer works,” he said.
“Let me be direct: we are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”
Great powers have been “using economic integration as weapons,” adding that Canada cannot believe in the “lie” of mutual benefit “when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
“Canada was amongst the first to hear the wake-up call, leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture. Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumption that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security is no longer valid,” he said.
Carney urged “middle-powers” to band together and “live in truth.”
“It means naming reality. Stop invoking the ‘rules-based international order’ as though it still functions as advertised. Call it what it is – a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion,” he said.
He urged middle-powers to collectively bargain with hegemons.
“When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness,” Carney said.
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