Carney in Australia to deepen trade and defence ties with 'natural partner'

Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Australia, where his government is looking to build on already strong intelligence ties through broader collaboration in trade and defence.

The prime minister arrived in Sydney midday Tuesday local time, which was Monday evening in Canada. He is expected to meet with business leaders in Sydney.

"This is a very important relationship for Canada to continue to build on. It is one that's predicated on years of co-operation," Defence Minister David McGuinty, who is in Sydney with Carney, said Tuesday.

He told reporters Canada is building the relationship with Australia on two tracks — a deeper economic connection and defence and security.

McGuinty said there is a "new openness here in Australia to work with Canada."

"I would say that the prime minister's outreach and indicating that there is another way for middle powers to come together and collaborate on the economy, on defence, on security, is a message that resonates very strongly," he said.

While McGuinty held a media availability shortly after arriving in Sydney, Carney has not spoken with reporters in days.

His office cancelled a Monday press conference in India after his meeting there with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His office declined reporters' requests to make him available to answer questions Tuesday.

On Thursday, Carney will head to Canberra to address the Australian Parliament. The prime minister will then leave for Tokyo.

Carney is set to meet with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been in power since 2022. Both countries are Commonwealth nations and partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, along with the U.S., U.K. and New Zealand.

"Australia obviously is a natural partner for Canada in the Indo-Pacific," Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president Vina Nadjibulla said in a recent interview.

Both countries are commodity exporters. Nadjibulla noted that Beijing has swapped imports from one country to the other during times of friction — it bought Australian canola products when it restricted Canadian imports during a recent diplomatic row.

Among Indo-Pacific nations, Australia has been "by far the leading source" of foreign direct investment in both directions for Canada, Nadjibulla said, particularly for Canadian pension funds.

Canberra also has signed on to a handful of initiatives Canada has launched to shore up critical mineral supply chains to reduce western countries' dependence on China. Nadjibulla said Canada could learn from an Australian initiative to stockpile certain strategically important critical minerals.

At the G20 summit in South Africa last November, Carney launched a partnership on emerging technologies with India and Australia. The three countries have offered little information on what that work will entail.

Ottawa and Canberra signed an agreement last year for Canada to buy an Australian over-the-horizon radar system for use in the Arctic. Nadjibulla said both countries could build on this through defence-industrial projects touching on cybersecurity or quantum technology. 

Australia was among the nations Canada singled out last month in a strategy to spend billions on defence.

The prime minister's visit comes as he leads a push to get the European Union into some form of partnership with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, a massive Pacific Rim trade bloc that includes Australia. Canada is a member of the CPTPP and has a trade agreement with the EU.

The idea is to sidestep the dysfunction Beijing and Washington have created at the World Trade Organization and have most other large economies trading with predictable rules, Nadjibulla said.

"In the absence of an overall multilateral framework, the best next option is this kind of smaller coalition of countries that are still interested in rules-based trade, and interested in upholding these values," she said.

While Australia has been grappling with the erratic policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, Nadjibulla said it's important to remember that Canada is far more integrated into the American economy by virtue of proximity.

"They're less exposed to the volatility and unpredictability of Trump," she said. "Public opinion is not as focused on President Trump in Australia. They're much more focused on closer, regional issues vis-a-vis China and the threats of China in the Indo-Pacific."

Nadjibulla said Canberra would be unlikely to take a strong stand against Washington. But she said Australia could be a guide for Canada as it seeks to boost economic and security ties with countries in Southeast Asia, where Ottawa has various trade deals signed or under negotiation.

"Australia has a lot more inroads in its relationships and Canada wants to do more. We can pool resources essentially, and bring more scale and more depth when we show up in that region, if we partner with Australia," she said.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld