French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have pledged to deepen ties between their countries as geopolitical tensions, trade disputes with the United States and concerns over national sovereignty push Canada and European allies towards closer cooperation.

The two leaders met on Sunday in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the French archipelago off Canada’s Atlantic coast. It was the first visit to the territory by a Canadian prime minister and the first by a French president since François Hollande travelled there in 2014.

Carney said Canada and France needed to strengthen their relationship as their societies faced climate disruption, the erosion of democratic norms and new threats to sovereignty. Macron said the two countries shared commitments to democracy, the rule of law, international law, free and fair trade and strategic autonomy.

The meeting comes as Ottawa seeks to reduce its dependence on the United States and build stronger political and economic relationships with Europe amid an increasingly contentious trade relationship with Washington under US President Donald Trump.

Cooperation on defence, space and energy

Macron and Carney agreed to expand cooperation across several strategic sectors, including defence, space, energy and advanced technologies.

According to the Canadian prime minister’s office, the leaders instructed their space agencies, defence ministries and industries to work on shared space infrastructure, including launch systems as well as ground reception and control facilities.

The two governments also discussed energy security and closer cooperation on critical minerals. Before the meeting, Ottawa said talks would cover aerospace, energy, critical minerals, quantum technology, satellites and supercomputing.

Macron said Canadian liquefied natural gas could play a greater role in supplying Europe and expressed interest in seeing more Canadian LNG directed towards European markets rather than primarily towards Asia.

Trump map adds symbolic weight to meeting

The summit carried added symbolism following a social media post by Trump showing a map of much of North America covered by the US flag.

The image included Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and parts of the Caribbean under the words “United States of America”. French territories, including Saint Pierre and Miquelon and French Caribbean islands, were also encompassed by the image.

Asked about the post, Macron dismissed any suggestion that France needed repeatedly to reaffirm sovereignty over its territories simply because people had what he called “strange ideas” or said “strange things”.

The French presidency had said before the visit that the meeting would reaffirm the principle of national sovereignty at a time of renewed geopolitical competition.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon lies just off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Its location gives the small French territory strategic relevance in the North Atlantic and in cooperation between France and Canada.

Canada looks towards Europe

The leaders also discussed a potentially deeper relationship between Canada and the European Union.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently proposed the idea of Canada becoming the EU’s first “associate member”. Such a status does not currently exist within the bloc’s legal framework, meaning its precise scope and requirements remain undefined.

Macron said France supported closer Canadian integration with the EU. Carney has welcomed the proposal but has made clear that Canada is not seeking full membership of the bloc.

Any new arrangement would face significant political and legal negotiations among the EU’s 27 member states.

The existing Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU illustrates some of those difficulties. More than a decade after CETA was signed and nine years after it began provisional application, several EU countries, including France, have still not completed ratification.

The Canadian government described the emerging relationship as an “alliance for the future” between Canada and the EU, built around complementary strategic capabilities and intended to strengthen sovereignty, prosperity and collective resilience.

Macron travelled to Saint Pierre and Miquelon on his way to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, placing the meeting immediately before a week of high level diplomacy in which relations with Washington, international trade and security are expected to feature prominently.