Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called on middle-power nations to forge a collective path rather than jockey individually for Washington's approval, deepening his push to reorient Canada toward Europe on the eve of the Group of Seven summit in Evian-les-Bains, France.

Speaking on Saturday at Trinity College in Dublin — one of Ireland's oldest universities — Carney delivered a pointed warning to smaller nations navigating an increasingly turbulent global order. "In a world of great power rivalry, middle powers have a choice — to compete for favour or to combine to create a third path with impact," he said. Addressing Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin alongside him, Carney described the current moment as "a global rupture, not a quiet transition," arguing that the post-Cold War rules-based international system is breaking down as multilateral institutions weaken and economic integration is "weaponised" to coerce smaller states. Though he named no country directly, his remarks came amid sustained pressure on Canada from Washington, where President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Canada to become the US's "51st state" and imposed tariffs to extract concessions on trade and immigration.

Carney sought to frame a Canada-EU alliance as a credible counterweight to the great powers. He noted that together, Canada and the European Union have a combined population more than twice that of the United States, a similarly scaled economy, and a collective defence budget double that of China. "Together, we are powerful because we have the capacity to act together," he said, adding that nations investing in their own capabilities and partnering with like-minded allies "will multiply their strength." He also called for the EU to deepen ties with the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would create a trading bloc of more than 1.5 billion people.

Carney has been building these alliances steadily. Canada became the first non-European member of the EU's SAFE defence procurement mechanism in February, and in May Carney became the first non-European leader to attend the European Political Community Summit. This trip to Ireland was his ninth visit to Europe since taking office 15 months ago. He met French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday and is expected to attend the G7 summit, which runs from June 15 to 17, though a senior US administration official confirmed that no bilateral meeting between Carney and Trump is currently scheduled at the summit, and that "no major breakthroughs" with Canada are anticipated.

The stakes are considerable. A scheduled July 1 review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the North American free-trade deal binding the three neighbours' economies, looms over the summit after Trump signalled he may not renew it. Carney noted, however, that roughly 85 percent of Canadian exports to the US currently enter tariff-free under the pact, and argued that any fundamental restructuring would require White House engagement with Congress — something, he said, the administration is reluctant to pursue. With Canada setting a goal to double its non-US exports within a decade, Carney's message to fellow middle powers is clear: collective leverage, not individual deference, is the surest route to stability.