Carney Meets Norway’s Prime Minister Hours After Macron Talks as Canada Accelerates Push Beyond U.S.

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On a single Sunday, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s schedule links a small French archipelago off Newfoundland with Parliament Hill in Ottawa — and, in doing so, captures Canada’s increasingly deliberate effort to widen its economic and security options beyond the United States. Carney is holding talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon before returning to Ottawa for a same-day meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

The back-to-back diplomacy puts energy, critical minerals, advanced technology, defence and Arctic security on the table with two European partners. It also comes as Canada faces a renewed tariff confrontation with Washington and pushes for deeper commercial ties with Europe. The central question is no longer whether Canada wants more non-U.S. partnerships, but how quickly those relationships can become contracts, investment, infrastructure and durable market access.

A Diplomatic Day Built Around Europe

Carney’s September 20 itinerary is unusually compressed. His office scheduled a 12:45 p.m. working lunch with Macron in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony and a joint statement. He was then due to leave the French territory at 3:30 p.m. local time, arrive in Ottawa at 3:45 p.m. Eastern time and welcome Støre on Parliament Hill at 4:45 p.m. The formal Canada-Norway bilateral was set for 5:00 p.m., with a joint media availability at 6:15 p.m. That sequence places two separate European relationships at the centre of one political day.

The geography gives the schedule added symbolism. Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is French territory roughly 25 kilometres off Newfoundland, making France a direct North Atlantic neighbour of Canada. Ottawa, meanwhile, is hosting a Norwegian leader whose country shares Canada’s status as both an Arctic nation and a NATO ally. The meetings are not interchangeable: France is an EU power and major bilateral investor, while Norway sits outside the EU but is tightly integrated with Europe and brings deep expertise in energy, maritime industries, sovereign investment and northern security. Together, the meetings illustrate the broad architecture Canada is trying to build.

France Offers a Bridge Into Europe

The Macron meeting is built around sectors where Canada and France already have commercial and strategic overlap. Ottawa said the leaders would discuss aerospace, energy, critical minerals and advanced technologies including quantum computing, satellites and supercomputing. The relationship is not starting from scratch. Canadian and French officials have been working to deepen defence-industrial ties, and an earlier 2026 meeting highlighted France’s purchase of two additional Canadian-built DHC-515 firefighting aircraft as one example of the two countries’ aerospace connection.

There is also meaningful trade and investment behind the diplomacy. Canada-France merchandise trade reached $15.2 billion in 2025, including $5.0 billion in Canadian exports to France and $10.2 billion in imports. French direct investment in Canada stood at $41.9 billion at the end of that year, while Canadian direct investment in France was $14.1 billion. Those figures are modest beside Canada-U.S. commerce, but they give Ottawa a sizeable existing platform in a major EU economy. For Carney, France also matters politically: a stronger relationship with Paris can help turn Canada’s broader European ambitions into practical cooperation on energy security, defence procurement, research and strategic supply chains.

Norway Brings Energy, Technology and Capital

The Støre visit extends a relationship Carney has already been cultivating. During a March trip to Norway, the two governments outlined cooperation in trade and investment, space, energy, critical minerals, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence and defence. Canada later described the September visit as an opportunity to advance work on “sovereign technology,” including AI and aerospace, alongside energy and mineral supply chains. Støre’s schedule also includes visits to the University of Ottawa and Kongsberg Geospatial, a Norwegian-linked technology company with operations in Canada.

Norway is not one of Canada’s largest trading partners, but the relationship has strategic weight. Bilateral merchandise trade was $3.8 billion in 2025, with $2.3 billion in Canadian exports and $1.6 billion in imports. Services trade was another $1.3 billion in 2024. Norway also manages the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, valued by the Canadian government at more than $3.5 trillion, giving investment discussions an obvious economic dimension. In practical terms, the Ottawa talks can connect Canadian resources and technology firms with a country that has world-class experience in offshore energy, maritime systems, defence technology and long-horizon institutional investment.

U.S. Tariffs Give Diversification New Urgency

Canada’s European outreach is unfolding during a sharper trade conflict with its largest economic partner. The federal government says the United States imposed a 50 per cent tariff on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods effective August 22. Canada responded with matching counter-tariffs of 15, 25 and 50 per cent on $27.6 billion of U.S. imports beginning September 8, targeting products in sectors including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics. The measures followed unsuccessful negotiations over a new trade arrangement.

That context helps explain why diplomatic meetings with France and Norway are being framed around resilience rather than ceremony alone. Diversification cannot remove the importance of the U.S. market, but it can reduce the cost of having too few alternatives when tariffs or regulatory changes hit particular industries. The shift was already visible in 2025: the U.S. share of Canada’s merchandise exports fell to 71.7 per cent from 75.9 per cent a year earlier, while exports to non-U.S. markets rose 17.2 per cent. In July 2026, non-U.S. goods exports climbed another 7.4 per cent to a record $25.6 billion.

Europe Is Becoming a Bigger Economic Counterweight

Europe is the most developed non-U.S. platform available to Canada because much of the legal groundwork already exists. The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement has been provisionally applied since 2017. According to the European Commission, bilateral EU-Canada trade in goods and services reached €130 billion in 2025, about 80 per cent higher than in 2016. Goods trade reached €81.5 billion and services trade €49 billion. The EU remains Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States.

Carney’s recent push for a deeper Canada-EU relationship aims to build on that base rather than replace it. Discussions have ranged across defence, energy, critical minerals, AI, digital trade and mobility, and an EU-Canada summit is scheduled in Montreal for October 29 and 30. Still, the path is not automatic. The proposed idea of an “associate” relationship has no established EU template for Canada, and European capitals have raised questions about how far integration should go. CETA itself remains provisionally applied rather than fully ratified throughout the bloc. That makes implementation, rather than symbolism, the next meaningful measure of progress.

Energy and Critical Minerals Are at the Centre

Energy and minerals repeatedly appear in Carney’s talks because they are areas where Canadian supply can match European demand for diversification. Canada’s first large-scale LNG export terminal at Kitimat, British Columbia, began shipping cargoes in June 2025. Since then, proposed Ksi Lisims LNG has secured European commercial interest: Germany’s SEFE agreed to pursue purchases of one million tonnes annually for up to 20 years, while Uniper signed a binding agreement for two million tonnes annually for up to 20 years beginning in 2032. Macron has also publicly pointed to Canadian LNG and strategic minerals as potential sources for Europe.

Critical minerals offer a second avenue. Canada’s updated federal list contains 34 minerals and metals considered critical, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, uranium and rare earth elements. Ottawa says Canada already produces or has the potential to produce all 34. These materials feed batteries, power grids, semiconductors, aerospace systems and defence equipment, which is why both France and Norway are discussing them with Canada. The challenge is converting geological potential into mines, processing capacity, infrastructure and long-term purchase agreements. That is where diplomacy meets the slower realities of project permitting, capital spending and construction.

Arctic Security Makes Norway More Than a Trade Partner

The Norway meeting also reflects a security relationship that is becoming more operational. Canada and Norway are Arctic states, founding NATO members and partners in the North Atlantic. Ottawa says the leaders will discuss Arctic resilience, defence modernization and secure defence supply chains. Their cooperation accelerated earlier this year when Carney travelled to Norway and observed the Norwegian-led NATO Exercise Cold Response above the Arctic Circle. Canada and Norway also agreed to deepen work in areas including space communications and security.

Canada is simultaneously increasing the scale of its own northern activity. The Canadian Armed Forces said its 2026 Operation NANOOK-NUNALIVUT involved about 1,300 personnel and nearly 200 vehicles and pieces of equipment, with participation from allies including Belgium, Denmark, France and the United States. Canada has also applied to join the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, whose members include Norway and other northern European NATO states. None of this eliminates Canada’s longstanding continental defence relationship with the United States through NORAD. Instead, it adds more allied capacity around the Arctic and North Atlantic — precisely the regions where Canada and Norway have overlapping strategic interests.

Diversification Is Growing, but the U.S. Still Dominates

The strongest argument against overstating Canada’s pivot is the scale of the existing U.S. relationship. Global Affairs Canada data show that Canadian goods and services exports to the United States totalled $683.3 billion in 2025. Comparable exports to the European Union were $67.7 billion. Even after a year in which non-U.S. trade grew rapidly, the U.S. market remained in a different category. Supply chains in autos, energy, agriculture, manufacturing and services have been integrated across the border for decades, while geography keeps transportation costs relatively low for many products.

That is why “beyond the U.S.” is better understood as a diversification strategy than a decoupling strategy. France and Norway can create new demand, investment and defence-industrial connections, but they cannot quickly replicate the volume of cross-border commerce with the United States. The encouraging data are about direction: in July, 33.7 per cent of Canadian goods exports went to countries other than the U.S., and exports to the EU jumped 31.3 per cent from June. The caution is that monthly trade can be volatile. Sustainable diversification requires years of infrastructure, contracts, regulatory alignment and business investment, not a single diplomatic weekend.

The Next Test Is Turning Meetings Into Contracts

Ottawa has now attached a measurable target to the strategy: double non-U.S. exports over the next decade, a goal the government says could generate roughly $300 billion in additional trade. The September 20 meetings fit directly into that agenda. With Norway, the near-term questions are whether discussions produce new investment, technology partnerships, defence procurement opportunities or energy and mineral agreements. With France and the wider EU, attention moves quickly to the Montreal summit at the end of October, where Canada will be looking for concrete progress on a broader strategic relationship.

The sequence also shows that diversification is being pursued across several tracks at once. Canada is using existing free-trade agreements, new trade negotiations, energy infrastructure, critical-mineral partnerships, defence cooperation and technology policy to widen its options. That makes the Carney-Macron and Carney-Støre meetings significant less because of ceremony than because they sit at the intersection of those priorities. For workers and companies, the meaningful outcomes will be visible later: export orders, investment decisions, procurement contracts, new supply chains and projects that actually reach construction. The diplomatic pace has accelerated; the economic test is whether implementation can keep up.

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