Canada backs Greenland, Denmark, and middle powers must together resist coercion from great powers, PM says

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos. Photo / Fabrice Coffrini, AFP

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said today that the United States‑led global system of governance is enduring “a rupture” defined by great power competition and a “fading” rules‑based order.

Carney delivered his stirring speech to political and financial elites at the World Economic Forum, a day before US President Donald Trump was set to address the gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Since entering Canadian politics last year, Carney has repeatedly warned that the world was not going to return to a pre‑Trump normal.

He re‑affirmed that message in a speech that did not name Trump but offered an analysis of the President’s impact on global affairs.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said.

He noted that Canada had benefitted from the old “rules‑based international order”, including from “American hegemony” that “helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes”.

A new reality has set in, Carney said.

“Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion.”

‘On the menu’

In an apparent warning against efforts to appease major powers, Carney said countries like Canada can no longer hope that “compliance will buy safety”.

“It won’t,” he said.

“The question for middle powers, like Canada, is not whether to adapt to this new reality. We must.

“The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls - or whether we can do something more ambitious.

“Middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Carney said.

“Great powers can afford for now to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not.”

Carney delivered his Davos speech after Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the Canadian military has developed a model response to a US invasion.

Citing two unnamed senior government officials, the paper said the Canadian response model centres on insurgency‑style tactics, like those used in Afghanistan by fighters who resisted Soviet and later US forces.

After Trump’s 2024 election and in the early months of his new term, he repeatedly referred to the US’ northern neighbour as the 51st state and said a merger would benefit Canada.

Trump’s annexation talk has eased in recent months, but overnight he posted an image on his social media platform of a map showing Canada, Greenland, and Venezuela covered in the US flag, implying a full American takeover.

The Davos meeting has been overshadowed by Trump’s threats to enforce US control over Greenland, with the President vowing that his plan for the autonomous Danish territory was irreversible.

“Canada stands firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully supports their unique right to determine Greenland’s future,” Carney said.

- Agence France-Presse