Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has urged Australia to work as “strategic cousins” with Canada, arguing that cooperation between “middle powers” will be critical as the global order shifts.
Addressing the Australian Parliament on the second day of his visit on March 5, Carney said the economic and political systems that underpinned decades of global prosperity are now being reshaped by successive crises.
“I have come to Australia to reaffirm our alliance and to suggest where we can go next,” he said.
As part of that effort, Carney confirmed Australia will join the G7 Critical Minerals Production Alliance, and highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence in national security.
“Strategic autonomy will require sovereign intelligence infrastructure, including secure clouds data, LLM models, enterprise applications. Canada can contribute here as well … We know we must work with others who share our values to build sovereign AI capabilities so we are not caught between the hyperscales and the [political] hegemons.”
Canada is already working with partners in Europe and has launched a trilateral artificial intelligence initiative with India. Carney said cooperation with Australia could further strengthen those efforts.
Earlier in his speech, Carney acknowledged Australian firefighters who travelled to Canada last year to help battle devastating wildfires in the province of Alberta.
Seek New Ways to Work Together: Albanese
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed Carney to Parliament and said the two governments had agreed to expand cooperation across sectors like critical minerals, including aligning Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve with Canada’s defence stockpiling system.“Australia and Canada must seek and create new ways to stand with—and for—each other,” Albanese said.
“We do not share a border, a region, a hemisphere, or any market smaller than the global one.”
Opposition Says Middle Powers Must Work Together
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor also welcomed Carney’s visit, noting the pair first met studying economics together at Oxford University in 1991.“In politics, one of life’s great joys is seeing old friends do well. So it gives me immense joy to see Canada led by an old friend, a man of the highest calibre, utterly devoted to his country,” Taylor said.
Taylor said Carney’s recent speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos highlighted the challenges facing middle powers.
“The rules based international order has been exposed as wishful thinking of a bygone and benign era, especially in these times when autocratic regimes act with impunity.”
Key Agreements Announced
The visit also produced several agreements.A joint statement released by both governments outlined plans for regular meetings between finance ministers to improve coordination on tax policy and investment.
The two countries also signed a new Australia–Canada Clean Energy Partnership, aimed at expanding clean energy trade.
Defence cooperation will also be expanded through a new biennial Defence Ministers’ Meeting, as well as joint work on Over-the-Horizon Radar technology.
Border security cooperation will also deepen under a Canada–Australia Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement, which is set to take effect in 2026.
In the health sector, a renewed pandemic preparedness agreement with CSL Seqirus will ensure Australia can supply influenza vaccines to Canada in the event of a future global outbreak.
