{"id":224635,"date":"2026-09-18T12:32:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/canada-and-e-u-seek-middle-powers-alliance-to-counter-trump-threats-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T12:32:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:32:57","slug":"canada-and-e-u-seek-middle-powers-alliance-to-counter-trump-threats-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/canada-and-e-u-seek-middle-powers-alliance-to-counter-trump-threats-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada and E.U. seek \u2018middle powers\u2019 alliance to counter Trump threats – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Around 3,700 miles separate the Gothic towers of Canada\u2019s Parliament in Ottawa from the glass-fronted modern European Parliament building in eastern France.
But judging by the thunderous applause shaking the E.U. chamber Thursday, President Donald Trump\u2019s threats<\/a> are helping to close that distance<\/a>.
Canada and Europe have long been close U.S. allies, benefiting from American military power and trading heft. But Trump has upended those relationships, waging trade wars against Canada<\/a> and the E.U., while threatening to absorb Canada as America\u2019s 51st state<\/a> and take control of Greenland, Denmark\u2019s autonomous Arctic territory.
Without a reliable partner in the White House, the spurned allies<\/a> are now forging their own path.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney urged the world\u2019s \u201cmiddle powers\u201d to join forces in a speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday to create \u201can alliance strong enough so that no one can dictate our choices.\u201d
The strategy in short: strength in numbers.
\u201cI\u2019m not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great power rival, only with better manners,\u201d he stressed.
\u201cWe do not seek power to dominate others,\u201d Carney continued. \u201cOn the contrary, we are pursuing resilience. So no one \u2014 no one \u2014 can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.\u201d
The remarks appeared aimed in part at Trump, though Carney did not name the president in his speech. The response in the room was a near-unanimous standing ovation from lawmakers representing the bloc\u2019s 27 member countries.
Some European leaders, meanwhile, appear ready to grant Canada more favorable access to its closely guarded single market.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen caused a stir Wednesday<\/a> when she suggested making Canada the E.U.\u2019s first \u201cassociate member.\u201d She also outlined an \u201calliance for the future\u201d that would increase cooperation on defense, energy, critical minerals, artificial intelligence and other tech.
\u201cThis is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength,\u201d she said.
At a news conference Thursday, Carney stressed that Canada was \u201cnot in a position, nor seeking, to become a full member\u201d of the European Union, a long and drawn-out process of regulatory alignment that can sometimes take decades for applicant countries.
\u201cWhat matters is the substance,\u201d he said of the associate membership proposal.
Carney has deep links to Europe, having served as governor of the Bank of England before his political homecoming propelled him to Canada\u2019s leadership. He tapped into those ties Wednesday, bonding with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham<\/a> at an Everton soccer match.
The two vowed \u201cclose cooperation\u201d separate from the European Union, which Britain left six years ago, while Carney also announced that Canada had applied to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a military coalition of 10 European NATO countries.
Carney\u2019s speech Thursday was hailed by some as a historic moment.
\u201cA new world order really is being shaped and it is not how Trump\u2019s USA imagined,\u201d wrote British political commentator Alastair Campbell, former communications chief to ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair. \u201cIt used to be taken as read that the US President led the free world. No more,\u201d he posted to X<\/a>.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez, a leftist who has repeatedly clashed with Trump, posted a playful image of the E.U. flag appended with the Canadian maple leaf.
Trump, for his part, has proved less welcoming of Canada\u2019s European ambitions, calling the prospect of E.U. associate membership \u201claughable.\u201d He told reporters Wednesday that \u201cif it\u2019s a good intention, that\u2019s fine. If it\u2019s a bad intention, we\u2019ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.\u201d
While the specific label of \u201cassociate membership\u201d appears to be an escalation, Canada and Europe have been pursuing closer ties for some time, partly to weather the storm Trump has unleashed on global trade.
The E.U. is Canada\u2019s second-largest trading partner after the U.S., with a 2017 free trade agreement eliminating most tariffs between them, though some trading barriers remain.
They signed a defense partnership in June 2025, and Canada joined the E.U.\u2019s military procurement program this February, giving its companies greater access to European contracts. Negotiations on a digital trade agreement followed in March.
\u201cMiddle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu,\u201d Carney told the World Economic Forum in January.
Enthusiasm for closer ties has so far been accompanied by caution \u2014 on both sides.
\u201cWe\u2019re not there,\u201d Canada\u2019s incoming ambassador to Brussels, Jonathan Wilkinson, told reporters in Strasbourg when asked about associate membership. \u201cWhat we\u2019re focused on is actually driving results.\u201d
German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius, meanwhile, said that while the idea was good, \u201cwe should reconsider the terminology \u2014 the label \u2014 associated with it.\u201d
It is not clear how associate membership might work, nor what rights and responsibilities Canada might gain. The plan would need buy-in from all 27 members, an often fractious alliance with their own ideologies and geopolitical and domestic practical considerations.
Opening the door to a perceived lighter form of E.U. membership, just weeks after Icelanders voted against seeking to join the bloc<\/a>, could risk dulling hopes of further E.U. expansion and revive fears of further disunity.
There are practical realities, too. Despite recent acrimony, tariff threats and trade boycotts, roughly 70% of Canadian exports go to the U.S., the two countries bound together by a 5,525-mile border, as well as centuries of cultural and historical ties.
The U.S.-Canada trading relationship, in which individual car parts often cross the border multiple times during the manufacturing process, cannot easily be replaced by trade that requires crossing thousands of miles of the Atlantic Ocean.
Nonetheless, Carney\u2019s stated calculation is that, by diversifying their partners in trade, military and other areas, middle powers can reduce their reliance on big beasts such as the U.S. and improve their resilience in an increasingly belligerent world.
He will hope to strengthen this cast next month, when Canada and the E.U. are due to hold a summit in Montreal on Oct. 29 and 30. For him, the goal is to reduce dependence even while maintaining relationships with larger powers.
\u201cThe objective is not self-sufficiency,\u201d he said Thursday. \u201cIt is collective resilience.\u201d
Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for\u00a0NBC News Digital based in London.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeAround 3,700 miles separate the Gothic towers of Canada\u2019s Parliament in Ottawa from the glass-fronted modern European Parliament building in eastern France.But judging by the thunderous applause shaking the E.U. chamber Thursday, President Donald Trump\u2019s threats are helping to close that distance.Canada and Europe have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}