Five things to take away from Carney's remarks on foreign policy

Canada as a bridge between Europe and the Indo-Pacific

Carney sees broader promise in a major Pacific Rim trade deal, made up of countries that support the rules-based trading network that has come under pressure from both Beijing and Washington.

Carney said Monday that Ottawa could be the bridge between the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union, since Canada is a CPTPP member and has had a trade deal with the EU since 2017.

“Canada’s in both, effectively. We’re deepening with Europe, we’re deepening with some of those players there,” he said.

The U.S. launched the idea of the CPTPP but pulled out of talks, leaving countries like Canada, Peru, Australia and Vietnam to assemble a trading bloc.

That means major markets outside China and the U.S. are trading with each other and are committing not to use coercive trade practices.

The 2018 pact has since widened to include the U.K. — which isn’t a Pacific country but wants rules-based trade after its exit from the European Union.

Carney noted the EU is built around rules-based trade and there has been talk of getting Europe more involved in the CPTPP bloc. 

Some have suggested that the EU could join the bloc — which would offer major global markets a way to limit the sting of Chinese and American coercive trade policies. Others say the EU could simply agree to trade more with CPTPP countries.

“There is open discussion. We’re part of it. I don’t want to overplay it because it’s still early days,” Carney said.

Canada’s relationship with China

“One of the things that we can improve on … with respect to China is being clearer about where we engage,” Carney said.

The prime minister said there are “different tiers of engagement,” depending on how like-minded countries are.

He said Canada could “engage deeply” with China on energy and basic manufacturing, while sorting out “where are there guardrails and what should just be left off to the side.”

Carney said “elements that bridge into national security, privacy, other aspects like that” have to remain off-limits to China.

Carney also said China is “very sincere and engaged” on climate change because it’s “a country run by engineers.” The prime minister said there’s “almost a standing offer” from China to partner on climate change.

Carney said during the April election campaign that “the biggest security threat to Canada is China.” He has since restarted a working group with China aimed at rectifying trade issues.

Ottawa has taken a cautious approach to deepening engagement with China and has avoided rushing into talks on a trade deal. But Canada has partnered with Beijing on environmental issues in the past and co-hosted with China a UN conference on biodiversity in 2022.

Canada and China have been at odds recently over Ottawa’s move to match U.S. tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, which led China to slap tariffs on Canadian canola.

Using trade to end Russia’s war on Ukraine

Carney said he believes U.S. sanctions on countries or other entities working with Moscow could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and end the war in Ukraine.

He was asked about the U.S. using secondary sanctions to hit those doing business with specific entities. Canada touched off a long diplomatic spat with China when it arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou for allegedly breaching U.S. secondary sanctions on certain types of business with Iran.

Carney said Washington should proceed with a bill to implement secondary sanctions quickly because that is the “biggest non-military disincentive.” He said even the threat of such sanctions would hit Russia’s financial sector.

“You’d say we’re going to do it in two months or three months’ time to effectively force Putin to the trilateral table,” Carney said.

Carney was referring to ceasefire or peace talks between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“It would give time to reorganize relationships accordingly,” he added.

Carney also said he supports using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s defence, though he didn’t support the idea when he was a central banker.

Could Canada send troops to Gaza or Ukraine?

Carney was noncommittal Monday when asked whether Canada would be among the countries that would deploy troops to Ukraine as part of a post-ceasefire stability or peacekeeping force.

The prime minister said “we’ll see what the structure is” and Canada is “very active” in the coalition of Ukraine’s allies.

“We have very large troop presence in Latvia as part of our NATO obligations,” Carney said. “We’ll see in terms of Ukraine. There’s a lot to be done still to move that first to a cessation of hostility before the guarantees would come into effect.”

Carney also said Monday that Arab and European states have issued a variety of proposals for a post-ceasefire multinational force “in Palestine.”

Major national project announcements to come every four months

Carney said Canadians can expect to see approvals for major projects “roughly every four months for the course of the next couple of years.”

An expansion to the Port of Montreal and work to double liquefied natural gas production in B.C. are among the first five projects under consideration for fast-track approval through the federal government’s new major projects office.

Carney said earlier this month these are all viable projects “in the national interest” and Ottawa’s new major projects office intends to “move quickly so that these projects can move forward.”

The first list includes five projects that will be considered for speedy approval by the major projects office, and another five that require further development.

The projects up for fast-track approval include a first-of-its-kind small modular reactor in Clarington, Ont., a new copper and zinc mine in Saskatchewan and an expansion of the Red Chris Mine copper operation in northwestern B.C.

The projects represent more than $60 billion in investment, Carney said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2025. 

— With files from Kyle Duggan