Canada's Carney says middle-power countries shouldn't compete for favor with the US

DUBLIN (AP) — Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney continued his efforts to pivot away from the United States and allign with Europe, meeting with the leader of Ireland on Saturday ahead of the upcoming G7 summit and saying middle power countries shouldn’t compete for favor with America.

Carney said that Canada and the European Union have a combined population that is more than twice that of the United States, with a similarly sized economy and a collective defense budget that is twice that of China’s.

He said smaller nations can multiply their strength by partnering with like-minded allies.

“In a world of great power rivalry, middle powers have a choice — to compete for favor or to combine to create a third path with impact,” Carney said at Trinity College in Dublin.

He made similar comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which became a symbol of middle-power resistance in January, when he declared the global rules-based order over and condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries.

Carney visited Ireland's Taoiseach Micheál Martin earlier on Saturday and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday ahead of the Group of Seven summit of industrialized democracies that begins on Monday in France.

U.S. President Donald Trump leaves for the G7 summit right after he hosts UFC fights at the White House on Sunday for his 80th birthday.

Trump is not currently scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Carney during the summit, according to a senior U.S. administration official.

Carney described Canada and Europe as a ”force for good — because we safeguard the values of human rights, dignity, and pluralism that our people hold dear.”

The prime minister said together, the EU and Canada are one of the largest economic, cultural, technological, financial, and military blocs in the world.

“The new world order will be built starting with Europe,” Carney said at an earlier joint news conference with Martin. “Canada is the most European of non-European countries. We are transforming our cooperation with Europe.”

In February, Canada became the first non-European member of the SAFE mechanism, the European Union’s defense procurement initiative. Carney, on this ninth trip to Europe since become prime minister 15 months ago, noted Canada 56 partnerships in the critical minerals sector across more than 10 countries, primarily in Europe.

Carney made his comments despite saying that the U.S. isn’t interested in big changes to free trade agreement with the Canada and Mexico.

“The U.S. has been clear. They don’t want to change the fundamental architecture,” Carney said.

There is a scheduled July 1 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) the latest iteration of the North American free-trade pact that has intertwined the economies of the three countries since the early 1990s. Trump said this week that he may not renew the deal.

But Carney emphasized that the Trump administration has allowed about 85% of Canadian trade to the U.S. to be tariff free because it is covered under USMCA.

Carney said that to fundamentally change the agreement the White House would have to go to Congress, adding that the White House doesn’t want to do that.

Trade tensions continue to simmer between the North American neighbors.

The U.S. official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity on ground rules set by the White House, said the U.S. has had outreach from Canada to set up further discussions on trade with the U.S. administration.

The Trump administration views a recent move by the Canadian government to roll back a regulatory decision that required foreign streaming platforms to allocate a portion of their Canadian revenues to fund local news and programming as positive decisions, the official added.

But, the official added, “no major breakthroughs” with Canada are expected during the summit.

Trump said again this week that the U.S. doesn’t need anything that Canada has. Carney has set a goal for Canada to double its non-U. S. exports in the next decade, saying Trump’s trade war is causing a chill in investment.

"Prime Minister Carney has spoken with great clarity and conviction about Canada’s desire to deepen its engagement with Europe. Ireland warmly and unreservedly welcomes that ambition, and we will do what we can to strengthen relations between the European union and Canada during our forthcoming presidency," Martin said.

Ireland will be holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union starting in July.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, poses for a photograph with Micheal Martin, Ireland's head of government, in front of a portrait of Harry Boland, at the Government Buildings in Dublin, on Saturday, June 13, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov /The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Mark Carney signs the Guest Book as Micheal Martin, Ireland's head of government looks on, at the Government Buildings in Dublin, on Saturday, June 13, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov /The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, gives remarks alongside Micheal Martin, Ireland's head of government, at the Government Buildings in Dublin, on Saturday, June 13, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov /The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, speaks with Micheal Martin, Ireland's head of government, at the Government Buildings in Dublin, on Saturday, June 13, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov /The Canadian Press via AP)

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, shakes hands with Micheal Martin, Ireland's head of government, after giving remarks at the Government Buildings in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday, June 13, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov /The Canadian Press via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and injured three in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, local officials said Saturday, as part of Kyiv's campaign of strikes on military and energy targets deep inside Russia.

Drone debris sparked a fire at a sea terminal, local Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said. He did not give details, but Russian news outlets reported that a Black Sea export terminal transporting terminal crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied gas in the village of Volna was damaged.

Ukraine’s General Staff did not comment on the Krasnodar strike Saturday, but said that its forces had hit an oil preparation and pumping station overnight in Russia’s Volgograd region, as well as Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine's Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The attack comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s forces had struck several military and energy infrastructure sites deep inside Russia, including a military factory that he said supplied components for Russian drones and missiles.

He said Wednesday that Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo long-range missiles had hit the facility in Cheboksary, in the Chuvashiya region, more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the front line.

At the moment, he’s not scheduled to hold one-on-one talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, who will be in Evian-les-Bains for the Group of Seven summit, according to a senior U.S. administration official who briefed reporters on planning for the summit. The official spoke on the condition anonymity on ground rules set by the White House.

Trump and Zelenskyy last met in December, when the Ukrainian leader visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and the resulting global energy disruptions have overshadowed the conflict in Ukraine and pulled much of Trump’s attention away from the conflict in Europe that he vowed to quickly bring to an end during his 2024 White House run.

More than four years since the start of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line has remained largely static as swarms of drones hinder advances. As a result, both sides have increasingly relied on long-range strikes.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to strengthen air defenses after Ukrainian attacks set ablaze an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and also hit a nearby naval base, casting a cloud over a showcase economic forum in his hometown.

Elsewhere, Russian attacks injured nine people in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, setting fire to a local marketplace, regional authorities said.

Russia attacked three districts of the region more than 20 times with drones and aerial bombs, according to regional head Oleksandr Hanzha in a Telegram post on Saturday. Six were hospitalized including a man in critical condition, he added.

AP writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier practices military skills at a training ground near the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)