Australia is part of a group of middle powers who have the opportunity to shape a New World Order, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says, in the wake of the “rupture” of the rules-based order that once governed geopolitics.
“The world will always be shaped by great powers. But it can also be shaped by middle powers that trust each other enough to act with speed and purpose,” Mr Carney will say inan address to Australia’s federal parliament on Thursday.
“Canada and Australia have demonstrated that trust again this week. Every agreement signed, every coalition deepened, every commitment made is variable geometry in practice.
“Rather than lamenting the fall of the old order, let us redouble our efforts to build the new one.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has addressed Australian parliament. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard
Mr Carney spent time with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier in the day. Picture: NewsWire /Martin Ollman
Mr Carney described “variable geometry” as Canada’s new strategic framework, which prioritises coalitions with different countries for different issues, based on “common values and interests”.
“Variable geometry is not a retreat from multilateralism. It is its evolution,” he said.
The retreat from a dependence on great powers was a part of a global trend of many countries realising they must “develop greater strategic autonomy” in the wake of growing uncertainty, he said.
“When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself. A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself has few options,” Mr Carney said.
Mr Carney’s comments come in the aftermath of the US’s aggressive use of military force as a tool of diplomacy, most recently in its joint attack with Israel on Iran, and the rise of autocratic superpowers like China and Russia.
These actions have raised global questions about the post-World War II rules-based order, including the promotion of peaceful conflict resolution, established by great powers like the US.
US President Donald Trump’s aggressive use of military force as a tool of diplomacy has sparked global questions. Picture: NewsWire/ Joseph Olbrycht Palmer
During his speech, Mr Carney discussed five key areas for middle powers to collaborate in: critical minerals, defence, artificial intelligence, trade and capital.
He claimed Australia and Canada’s vast source of natural resources should make the two middle powers “strategic collaborators” rather than competitors, praising Australia’s joining of the G7 minerals alliance.
“Together, we produce 34 per cent of global lithium, 32 per cent of uranium supply, 41 per cent of iron ore, and a combined $25 billion war chest to fast-track projects,” he said.
“Globally, we are number one and two as the most attractive mining investment jurisdictions in the world.”
Mr Carney also discussed defence capability and referenced the Coalition of the Willing – a group of 34 countries that have pledged support for Ukraine against Russian aggression – as critical to supporting “a just and lasting peace”, he said.
Developing sovereign AI capability was also key, so middle powers like Canada and Australia were not “caught between hyper-scalers and hegemons”.
Mr Carney expressed Canada’s support for “building a bridge” between key trading blocs like the Transpacific Partnership and the European Union, one that was “capable of anchoring a rules-based trading system even as the old one falters.”
“This ad hoc trading coalition of middle powers has a larger GDP than the United States, three times the trade flows of China, the largest combined central bank balance sheet in the world, 62 of the top 100 universities, and is the largest source of cultural exports globally,” he said.
Amid the “coming period of global volatility” – ahead of the economic impacts of the war on Iran – Mr Carney added Australia and Canada’s modernising of its bilateral tax and investment treaty was crucial to make it easier to “invest and grow good jobs in both of our countries”.
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