Carney to push his middle power strategy during Australia visit
AFP via Getty ImagesPrime Minister Mark Carney will touch down on Tuesday in Sydney, Australia — the next stop on his Indo-Pacific tour aimed at shoring up investment in Canada and building new trade alliances.
On the agenda is a meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a leader with whom Carney shares much common ground.
Carney will also address Australia's parliament, becoming the first Canadian prime minister to do so in nearly 20 years. His remarks are expected to echo the themes of his widely noted speech in Davos, which urged "middle powers" to stand together.
The visit follows a four‑day trip to India, where Carney signed deals worth billions in a significant diplomatic breakthrough with Delhi.
In Australia, Carney's office said the prime minister will discuss deepening cooperation on defence and maritime security, critical minerals, trade and artificial intelligence.
Like India, a bulk of the Canadian prime minister's trip will include meetings with business leaders and investors "to attract new capital into Canada", his office said.
Relations between Canada and Australia date back more than a century, anchored in a shared colonial history and Commonwealth status, as well as steady cooperation on security, diplomacy and trade.
Albanese and Carney also have much in common as individual leaders.
Both lead centre-left parties in their countries, and both have US President Donald Trump partly to thank for their political success.
Benefiting from the so‑called "Trump effect", the global uncertainty triggered by Trump's second inauguration last year helped both Carney and Albanese secure historic election victories within a week of each other, as voters saw them as the steadier hands for navigating turbulent times.
"Canada is one of Australia's closest friends, built on generations of trust, with a shared commitment to supporting stability across the Indo-Pacific and beyond," said the Australian prime minister in a statement ahead of his meet up with Carney.
"As our countries face new challenges and opportunities, we must deepen our cooperation with partners to promote our national interests."
For Carney, the trip symbolises concrete action in line with his Davos speech, where he appealed to fellow middle powers to stand together in the face of economic "coercion" from great powers — a message widely interpreted as being aimed at Trump and his tariff policy.
"Middle powers must act together, because if we're not at the table, we're on the menu," he said.
Carney added that countries like Australia and Canada should instead "develop greater strategic autonomy" to preserve their interests.
Albanese has praised the speech, telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation last month that it is "consistent" with how Australia sees the current state of affairs.
Ahead of the address to Australia's parliament, Carney will make similar remarks on "on shifts in the global order and the opportunities they present for middle powers" at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank.
In that spirit, Carney and Albanese intend to build on deals such as the one they signed in October to strengthen trade and cooperation on critical minerals.
The visit will also include a "defence-focused" stop, officials with the Canadian government told reporters last week.
Canada and Australia have cooperated on several military projects, including joint naval deployments in the South China Sea and the use of Australian technology for radar systems in Canada's Arctic region.
The trip comes amid global turmoil following the US attacks on Iran over the weekend. The two leaders will likely the fall-out and any impact on their respective countries.
It is also the first meeting between Carney and a fellow Commonwealth leader since the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on 19 February.
Prime Minister Albanese has said that he supports the removal of the former prince from the British throne's line of succession. Carney, however, has not yet made a public statement on the matter.
Carney is scheduled to be in Australia until 6 March, first in Sydney and then in Canberra, after which he will depart to Japan for a meeting with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
