Macron, Carney Pledge Closer Ties on Miquelon Visit — SkimNews
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- Macron and Carney met in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon — the first French presidential visit since 2014 and the first by a Canadian PM — pledging closer cooperation on space, climate, energy, and democratic norms amid what Carney called "new storms" of geopolitical upheaval.
- The visit carried symbolic weight weeks after Trump posted a US flag image draped over Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon; Macron dismissed any notion the territory "could not be French."
- Paris is pushing Canada to redirect liquefied natural gas exports to Europe rather than Asia, with Macron saying Canadian projects are "important for Europe" as his government faces domestic pressure over rising fuel prices.
- Macron endorsed the EU's proposal to make Canada its first associate member; Trump responded by threatening the EU with "serious tariffs" and calling the idea "laughable."
- France and several other EU member states have yet to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) despite its provisional application beginning nine years ago — a concrete hurdle to deeper Canada-EU integration.
Why it matters: The visit turns a 6,000-person archipelago into a staging ground for Europe-Canada alignment just as Trump is challenging both allies' sovereignty claims and trade relationships. With France backing Canada's bid for EU associate membership and Paris eyeing Canadian LNG shipments to Europe, the meeting opens the door to concrete bilateral deals — though CETA's decade-long ratification limbo, including in Paris, shows deeper integration faces real legal drag.
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