UK-Canada Relations Post-Brexit
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will depart for Canada later today to meet with his counterpart, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor who assumed leadership of his country in March.
The two leaders are scheduled to meet in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, on Saturday evening, just ahead of the G7 summit set to take place in Alberta beginning Sunday. This will mark their first in-person meeting, and it comes just days after Israeli airstrikes on Iran, making it the first major global summit since tensions escalated in the Middle East.
Starmer and Carney will primarily focus their discussions on matters of trade and international security. According to Carney’s office, the objective of the bilateral meeting is to “strengthen the long-standing economic and security partnership between the two nations.”
Talks surrounding a potential UK-Canada trade deal had collapsed early last year, well before the UK’s general election, amid disagreements over beef and dairy market access. Though communication between British and Canadian officials has continued since then, a senior source in Whitehall described those interactions as “not in earnest…not anything substantial.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street has recently promoted three major trade agreements – with the European Union, India, and the United States – as key victories during a time of significant global economic uncertainty, following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The diplomatic approach taken by the two prime ministers toward President Trump has been notably divergent. Starmer has embraced a notably warm tone in his engagement with the U.S. president, a stance that some critics have labeled overly deferential.
Carney, on the other hand, has not shied away from openly rejecting Trump’s characterization of Canada as “America’s 51st state.” He has also voiced irritation over Starmer’s dramatic gesture of inviting Trump for a state visit to the UK – an act seen as undermining Canada’s sovereignty.
Following their one-on-one talks, Starmer and Carney will travel together on Sunday to Kananaskis, located in Alberta’s Canadian Rockies, where the G7 summit will take place.
The summit will bring together leaders from the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the European Union, and host nation Canada, for three days of discussions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also expected to attend.
