Sir Keir Starmer has defended Canada as “independent” and “sovereign” following Donald Trump’s repeated calls for its annexation as he visited Ottawa for talks on trade and security.
In an apparent challenge to the US President, the Prime Minister said the country was a “much-valued member of the Commonwealth”.
Sir Keir indicated the UK and Canada will seek to restart trade talks on his way to meet Mark Carney, the country’s premier and former Bank of England governor, in the Canadian capital on Saturday.
The visit will be the first by a British premier to the country in eight years and comes ahead of leaders from the world’s major economies meeting for the G7 summit in Kananaskis next week.
The Prime Minister will be walking a diplomatic tightrope between strengthening bilateral relations with Canada and keeping Mr Trump, with whom he is finalising details of a transatlantic trade deal, on side.
The US President has repeatedly expressed a desire to make Canada the “51st state.”
Asked whether he had called out Mr Trump’s remarks about Canada, the Prime Minister said: “Canada and the US are our allies. Canada is an independent, sovereign nation, and quite right, too.
“And that’s the basis on which I’ve approached my discussions with all of our partners. I’m not going to get into the precise conversations I’ve had, but let me be absolutely clear: Canada is an independent, sovereign country and a much-valued member of the Commonwealth.
“And we work closely with Canada on any number of issues, whether that is defence and security – particularly the training in Ukraine, it’s been something where Canada and the UK have worked very closely together.”
He added: “And one of the things I want to do is to open the door to taking out further, reducing out trade barriers with Canada. So, I’m really clear where we stand on that.”
The UK and Canada have a trade relationship worth about £28 billion to the British economy and are both members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
But the two leaders have starkly different approaches to the US president. Mr Carney previously criticised the UK Government’s invitation for Mr Trump to make a second state visit, telling Sky News earlier this year that Canadians were “not impressed” by the gesture.
Downing Street said Sir Keir would use his visit to Canada to argue that “in a shifting global economy, the UK must retain its proud status as a free and open trading nation – strengthening our existing alliances while reducing barriers to trade with other countries around the world”.
He is also expected to meet Mr Trump at the summit next week.
