Macron, Carney Pledge Closer France-Canada Ties — SkimNews
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- Macron and Carney pledged to strengthen France-Canada ties on climate change, democratic norms, and sovereignty, with Carney declaring "the time has come to strengthen our ties" after their Sunday meeting.
- Macron dismissed Trump's flag-post imagery, saying he didn't need to reaffirm daily that Saint-Pierre and Miquelon is French because "people have strange ideas or say strange things."
- Paris is pushing Canada to broaden liquefied natural gas exports to Europe rather than primarily Asia, with Macron noting "Canadian liquefied natural gas projects can help" European energy security.
- The two leaders discussed Canada's potential path to becoming the EU's first associate member — a proposal Macron said France backed and that Trump dismissed as "laughable," threatening "serious tariffs" in response.
- The visit to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon was the first by a French president since 2014 and the first ever by a Canadian prime minister, with diplomats citing its symbolic weight given the territory's location on the doorstep of the US and the Arctic.
- France has yet to ratify the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), more than a decade after it was signed and nine years after provisional application began — a hurdle for deeper bilateral integration.
Why it matters: France is asking Canada to redirect LNG shipments toward Europe at a moment when Ottawa is already diversifying away from US markets, giving both countries a concrete energy-trade rationale beyond the diplomatic theater of the Trump-flag row — though France's own failure to ratify CETA shows the bloc's internal resistance to the very integration it's now championing.
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