Canada's Carney says US-led global order, once a 'pleasant fiction', now faces 'rupture'

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has told the World Economic Forum (WEF) that the narrative of the US-led international rules-based order was "partially false", adding he global order is now facing a "rapture", in a veiled criticism of US President Donald Trump.

Calling the current moment as as "turning point" for Canada and the world, Carney told the annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, about what he said was "the rupture in the world order, the end of the pleasant fiction and the dawn of a brutal reality in which great-power geopolitics is unconstrained."

"We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim," Carney said.

"This fiction was useful," he said, adding the US hegemony aided public goods provision: open sea lanes, financial stability, collective security, and dispute resolution frameworks.

Carney said Canada and others "participated in the rituals" and largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

"This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct: we are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition."

He stated that great powers, without mentioning the US, have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, and supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.

"You cannot ‘live within the lie’ of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination," the Canadian premier stressed, adding the multilateral institutions on which middle powers relied — the WTO, the UN, the COP —the architecture of collective problem solving — "are greatly diminished."

He advocated for '"values-based realism," urging collaboration among middle powers to forge a third path based on shared standards, not isolation.

"If you are not at the table," Carney said, "you are on the menu," he said, drawing a rare standing ovation in the room.

The US President has previously threatened to annex Canada, and early on Tuesday shared an AI image of a map showing Canada, Venezuela and Greenland as part of the United States.

"If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate," Carney said, without mentioning Trump or the US.

Canada's deal with China

Carney, a former head of both the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada who struck a deal with China last week, said it was important for Canada to have a "web of connections".

"There are very clear guard rails in that relationship," Carney said of Canada's deal with China.

"But within those clear guard rails are huge opportunities in energy, both clean and conventional ... in agriculture, in financial services, all of which is mutually beneficial."

Carney also voiced his support for Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland and reiterated Canada's desire to forge new alliances with like-minded countries as he navigates a tricky relationship with the Trump administration in Washington.

Carney said that the country strongly opposed any tariffs being imposed by the US to further President Trump's aim of acquiring Greenland.

Trump announced tariffs on Saturday on imports from European allies that opposed his desire for the United States to take over Greenland, which is an autonomous part of Denmark.

"Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focused talks to achieve our shared objectives of security and prosperity in the Arctic," Carney said.