Canadian PM Calls for Smaller Nations to Band Together

Middle powers — like Canada — are not powerless and need to build a new world order based on new alliances and shared interests, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the World Economic Forum. In a powerful speech — reflected in another given by French President Emmanuel Macron — Mr Carney sought to move beyond the current crisis engulfing Europe and the United States over Donald Trump's claims on Greenland and galvanise smaller countries to band together so as not to be overpowered by larger players. "Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu," Mr Carney said, as he declared that the old world was over, that there was no point just mourning its end or hoping for a continuation of the multilateralism of the post war period. Loading... "This is not naive multilateralism," he said. "Nor is it relying on diminished institutions. It is building the coalitions that work, issue by issue, with partners who share enough common ground to act together. In some cases, this will be the vast majority of nations. "And it is creating a dense web of connections across trade, investment, culture on which we can draw for future challenges and opportunities." Mr Carney spoke on the first full day of the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos — which has been dominated and overwhelmed by Donald Trump's pronouncements on Greenland and attempts by European nations to find a way forward. European leaders have increasingly pushed back against Mr Trump on Greenland in recent days — following the leaking of the president's text messages with the Norwegian prime minister in which Trump links his more aggressive position with the fact he was not awarded the Nobel Prize. But Mr Carney's speech was widely heralded for looking beyond the crisis to assert the position of, and potential future path for, medium-sized powers as the world appears to be heading into a new era of great power rivalry between the US, China and Russia. Carney says Canada is not powerless "Great powers can afford to go it alone," Mr Carney told the audience in Davos. "They have the market size, the military capacity, the leverage to dictate terms. "Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. "Middle powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that embodies our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of states." President Macron had a similar message of building more economic sovereignty and "strategic economy" — though he was focused more specifically on the issues confronting Europe. Addressing the issues for Europe from both the US and China economically as well as strategically, Mr Macron said middle powers could not just "passively accept the law of the strongest, leading to vassalisation and bloc politics". "I think accepting the sort of new colonial approach doesn't make sense." 'We are in the midst of rupture' Mr Carney quoted the Czech dissident (and later president) Václav Havel's essay The Power of the Powerless which asked how the communist system sustained itself. He said this did not occur "through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false". Havel called this "living within a lie". "For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, praised its principles, and benefited from its predictability. We could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection. "We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false but … this fiction was useful. "This bargain no longer works. "The multilateral institutions on which middle powers relied — the WTO, the UN, the COP — the architecture of collective problem solving — are greatly diminished. "The result was that many countries are concluding that they must develop greater strategic autonomy," he said. He listed a range of arrangements that Canada has entered that reflects this new view including new trade deals and "in the past few days, we have concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar". Canada has 'what the world wants' Carney says In words that have echoes for Australia, Mr Carney said that Canada "has what the world wants". "We are an energy superpower. We hold vast reserves of critical minerals. We have the most educated population in the world. Our pension funds are amongst the world's largest and most sophisticated investors. We have capital, talent, and a government with the immense fiscal capacity to act decisively. "The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. "But from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just." Mr Macron also emphasised the need to make new ties with other trading blocs like the so-called BRICS nations, and also said Europe must push for European preference in its trade arrangements — with both the US and China. He implicitly warned that Europeans have to consider whether they should be investing first in Europe rather than other countries — a warning that is ominous for the United States as Europe largely funds its yawning government deficits. "We do have the savings as the Europeans, much more than the US, by the way. But this saving is overinvested in bonds and sometimes in equities — but outside Europe," he said.