{"id":61329,"date":"2026-09-18T03:50:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T03:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=61329"},"modified":"2026-09-18T03:50:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T03:50:58","slug":"canada-welcomes-eu-proposal-to-become-associate-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=61329","title":{"rendered":"Canada welcomes EU proposal to become &#8216;associate member&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BBC:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has welcomed the European Union&#8217;s ambition for Canada to become its first &#8220;associate member&#8221;, calling for closer cooperation on defence, critical minerals and energy security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carney told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday that Canada and Europe were &#8220;stronger together&#8221; in the face of &#8220;geopolitical rupture&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His comments came a day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed &#8220;opening the door&#8221; to Canada&#8217;s associate membership, a status that does not currently exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">US President Donald Trump earlier called the idea &#8220;laughable&#8221; and threatened &#8220;very serious tariffs&#8221; on Europe if he considered it a &#8220;hostile act&#8221;.<video playsinline=\"playsinline\"><\/video><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Canada and the US are locked in an escalating trade dispute, with each side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cx2z4dv6vn2o\">imposing tit-for-tat tariffs after bilateral talks collapsed<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Today our societies are being battered by new storms,&#8221; Carney said during his address, naming them as climate change, &#8220;the erosion of democratic norms&#8221; and the &#8220;weaponisation of trade&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Economic integration is now being weaponised, tariffs being used to exert pressure,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Financial mechanisms have been used for coercion. Supply chains constitute weak points to be exploited.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said a Canada-EU alliance would create a &#8220;beacon for other democracies&#8221;, while stressing the two sides were not seeking to form a new power bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I am not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great-power rival &#8211; only with better manners,&#8221; he told MEPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This is about sovereignty, our ability to live as we wish. We do not seek power to dominate others.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked about the proposal on Wednesday, Trump told reporters: &#8220;If I think it&#8217;s at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe, on many things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If it&#8217;s a good intention, that&#8217;s fine. If it&#8217;s a bad intention, we&#8217;ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe, which is a possibility.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Responding to Trump&#8217;s comments at a press conference following his address, Carney said: &#8220;This alliance is a positive process, that&#8217;s my response to the American president.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Canadians are united that nobody is going to tell us what language we speak, no-one is going to dictate our culture, or with whom we can strike agreements internationally,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has welcomed the European Union&#8217;s ambition for Canada to become its first &#8220;associate member&#8221;, calling for closer cooperation on defence, critical minerals and energy security. Carney told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday that Canada and Europe were &#8220;stronger together&#8221; in the face of &#8220;geopolitical rupture&#8221;. His comments came a day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed &#8220;opening the door&#8221; to Canada&#8217;s associate membership, a status that does not currently exist. US President Donald Trump earlier called the idea &#8220;laughable&#8221; and threatened &#8220;very serious tariffs&#8221; on Europe if he considered&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61331,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61329\/revisions\/61331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}