{"id":518203,"date":"2026-03-04T13:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518203\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:42:14","slug":"canada-pm-mark-carney-pushes-for-closer-military-ties-with-australia-to-counter-global-superpowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518203\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada PM Mark Carney pushes for closer military ties with Australia to counter global superpowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Australian and Canadian troops would move easily between each other\u2019s military facilities under a new treaty-style agreement being pushed by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as part of his campaign for middle powers to unite against coercion from global superpowers.<\/p>\n

Carney \u2013 who electrified fellow world leaders <\/a>in Davos, Switzerland<\/a> with a dramatic speech about the end of the global rules-based order<\/a> \u2013 will unveil his vision for a major deepening of defence and economic ties with Australia in a speech to a rare joint sitting of parliament on Thursday and in a formal meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n

\"CanadianCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (centre) with Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino (left) and Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMiddle powers like Canada, and I would suggest Australia, should recognise that the rupture in the international system represents just that,\u201d Carney told the Lowy Institute think tank on Wednesday evening, echoing his Davos speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness, we accept what\u2019s offered, we compete with each other to be the most accommodating. And this isn\u2019t sovereignty, it\u2019s the performance of sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a world of great power rivalry, countries like ours have a choice: compete with each other for favour, or combine to create a third path with impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Prime<\/a><\/p>\n

Carney said Canada was pursuing a \u201cdense web of connections\u201d with like-minded countries such as Australia to ensure they could not be subordinated by major powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiddle powers have more power than many realise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While both Canada and Australia backed the US and Israel\u2019s initial strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, Carney called for a \u201crapid de-escalation of hostilities\u201d and a political solution to avoid the devastating consequences of a prolonged conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Two of Carney\u2019s most senior ministers \u2013 National Defence Minister David McGuinty and Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne \u2013 foreshadowed Carney\u2019s speech to parliament by telling this masthead they believed the Canada-Australia relationship, while strong, had been undervalued and needed to be lifted to a new level.<\/p>\n

Reflecting previous remarks from his leader, Champagne said in an interview: \u201cIf you\u2019re not at the table, you\u2019re on the menu. If we don\u2019t want to be on the menu, let\u2019s organise a table where we have a seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CanadianCanadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the nations had taken their relationship for granted.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n

He called for Canada and Australia, which have two of the world\u2019s reserves of critical minerals, to boost their economic resilience by working together on processing and refining so countries such as China could not turn off the supply of these essential resources, as it recently did to Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world needs Canada and Australia,\u201d Champagne said, arguing that \u201ccritical minerals will be akin to oil in the 21st century\u201d in terms of their importance to the economy.<\/p>\n

He said the fact that it had been 20 years since a Canadian prime minister visited Australia \u201ctells you everything you need to know\u201d about how the nations had failed to prioritise the relationship as they focused on courting Washington.<\/p>\n

McGuinty said Canada wanted to pursue a \u201cmore direct and overt presence in the Indo-Pacific\u201d, even as its closest neighbour and ally becomes increasingly assertive and self-interested under US President Donald Trump, who menacingly refers to Canada as the \u201c51st state\u201d of America.<\/p>\n

\"CanadianCanadian Defence Minister David McGuinty with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Sydney on Wednesday.AP<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister\u2019s speech in Davos really indicated clearly that things have changed,\u201d McGuinty said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be hegemonic powers. They\u2019re going to continue, and we\u2019re all going to manage our relationship with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s another way, which is mid-powers come together; like-minded, values-driven democracies can come together and share on intelligence, security and defence. That\u2019s what this mission here is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carney and his delegation\u2019s visit to Australia comes between stops in India and Japan, as he seeks to diversify Canada\u2019s trade and security ties away from a narrow focus on the US.<\/p>\n

Arguing that both Canada and Australia had taken the relationship \u201cfor granted for a while\u201d, McGuinty said that \u201cits time has come\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked how Australia and Canada should co-operate on defence, McGuinty said he would like the nations to formalise their partnership by striking what is known as a visiting forces agreement.<\/p>\n

\"CanadianCanadian Defence Minister David McGuinty says the nations should significantly expand defence co-operation.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

Visiting forces agreements, usually formalised by treaty, provide a legal framework for countries\u2019 military personnel to operate in each other\u2019s territories. Australia currently has such agreements with countries such as Japan, Fiji and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

McGuinty said that \u201cthere\u2019s an opportunity here for our military to have a further approachment, and this involves the exchange of officers, of personnel coming in and coming out, the use of different locations, bases … the sharing of personnel on our vessels, working together on air force matters, working together in Central Command\u201d.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia and Canada, he said, should also conduct more joint military training exercises and pursue \u201cmutual planning and execution of responsibilities in the Indo-Pacific\u201d.<\/p>\n

McGuinty said the Canadian and Australian defence ministers should also hold annual, or biannual, meetings to bed down the relationship, while seizing an \u201cenormous opportunity\u201d to partner on military technology.<\/p>\n

Australia last year sold a new, long-range, over-the-horizon military radar system to Canada for $6.5 billion in the nation\u2019s biggest defence export deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has a lot to teach Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is your backyard. We are a Pacific nation, but your scope, your reach, your experience in this region, is second to none. So we would very much like to co-operate and work and build on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Champagne said the \u201cname of the game\u201d for critical minerals was refining and processing as he urged the nations to work together on this endeavour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re not scaled,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, we\u2019re good at exploration and extraction. But I would say … where we have not stepped up in the way we need to is on the refining and processing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MatthewMatthew Knott<\/a> is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"PeterPeter Hartcher<\/a> is political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-518203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}