The old relationship we [Canada] had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over. It's clear the US is no longer a reliable partner.
We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States [...] We will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere, and we will need to do things previously thought impossible at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.
We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim. This fiction was useful.
Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.
The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have relied – the WTO, the UN, the COP – the architecture, the very architecture of collective problem solving are under threat. And as a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions that they must develop greater strategic autonomy, in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains. And this impulse is understandable. A country that can't feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself, has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.
Argue, the middle powers must act together, because if we're not at the table, we're on the menu.
We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.
President Trump was threatening to annexe Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, a member of NATO along with Canada and the USA, and proposing further tariffs to be imposed on allies opposing him.
