SAINT-PIERRE, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron moved Sunday to deepen a strategic partnership spanning space, defense, energy and business, another step in Canada’s accelerating turn toward Europe as relations with the United States deteriorate.
They met in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a French territory just off Newfoundland’s coast where France and Canada are separated by only a few kilometers — a striking setting for two countries trying to build closer economic and security ties across the Atlantic.
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“Only a few kilometers separate Canada and France at their closest point. Our values are even closer,” Carney said in French while standing alongside Macron.
Carney said the countries will task their space agencies and defense ministries to develop and share infrastructure, including launch systems and ground-based reception facilities. They also agreed to expand cooperation in energy, telecommunications, climate resilience and economic development.
The meeting comes days after Carney embraced the prospect of Canada becoming the European Union’s first associate member and argued that deeper ties with Europe would make Canada less vulnerable to economic coercion by any single country.
Macron called Carney’s visit a “historic moment,” saying that amid global turmoil, the two countries were affirming “our sovereignty, our freedom to decide” and their determination to build closer ties.
Macron also backed Canada’s future involvement in the European Union.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, demands for economic concessions and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state have pushed the Canadian government to reduce its dependence on its neighbor and pursue deeper economic, security and political relationships with Europe.
Macron welcomed Carney on Sunday at the airport of the French territory off Newfoundland’s coast.
“This is an important moment,” Macron said Saturday upon arrival in Saint-Pierre-et- Miquelon, home to about 5,800 people.
Talks “will allow us … to strengthen our bilateral economic ties and defense relationship,” Macron said.
Macron also said that Sunday’s talks are part of broader efforts to help France secure oil and gas supplies as the Iran war disrupts global energy markets and raises fears of higher prices for fuel and other essentials.
“Canada is a country with significant resources of critical minerals and rare earths. It is also a major oil and natural gas producer,” Macron said. “What we want to do is conclude agreements to secure more liquefied natural gas that can be shipped to Europe’s Atlantic coast.”
The leaders discussed aerospace, energy, critical minerals and advanced technologies such as quantum computing, satellites and supercomputing, Carney’s office said in a statement.
Sunday’s meeting also follows Trump’s announcement of a deal on Greenland that would expand the U.S. military presence there while keeping the island under Danish control. The agreement followed months of threats by Trump to seize the semiautonomous territory of a NATO ally.
Macron welcomed the agreement Saturday.
“Danish sovereignty is being respected, international law is being respected,” he said. “Anything that helps ease tensions is a good thing.”
