Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday stood at the G-20 summit in Johannesburg and said what many global leaders have only whispered.
“The world can make progress without the United States,” Carney declared, adding that the weekend’s consensus among G-20 leaders still held power even though Donald Trump’s administration refused to take part.
South Africa, this year’s G-20 host, went ahead and issued an official declaration. That defiance came after Trump ordered U.S. officials to boycott the summit because of his claim that white farmers in South Africa are victims of a “genocide,” a story that’s been publicly disproven.
The White House responded by saying the event could only end with a chairman’s summary, since the U.S. was not present. South Africa ignored that and published a full statement anyway.
“The summit brought together nations representing three-quarters of the world’s population, two-thirds of global GDP, and three-quarters of the world’s trade,” Carney said. “And that’s without the United States formally attending.”
Carney builds new ties as Trump stews
Carney, who became Prime Minister earlier this year, won on a campaign that fought back against Trump’s tariffs and mocked U.S. chatter about possibly absorbing Canada.
Since then, he’s made it clear he doesn’t want Canada leaning so heavily on the U.S. economy.
At the press conference, Carney explained how he’s been lining up new trade partners. From India to China to South Africa, the plan is simple: go global without Washington.
He also mentioned his recent visit to Abu Dhabi, where the UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed promised to invest $70 billion in Canada, the largest foreign investment pledge Canada has ever landed. Carney didn’t give further details, but called it a turning point.
“We’re signing new deals and finding new investors to fuel our plans for Canada’s economic ambition,” Carney said. “We’ll expand trade and catalyze investment in increased partnerships across a range of areas from AI to energy in the Indo-Pacific and Europe.”
Later that day, Carney said he would sit down with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to try and repair diplomatic ties.
Relations between Canada and India have been tense since 2023, when Ottawa accused Indian agents of being involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen with Indian roots. India rejected the accusation.
Carney made it crystal clear he’s not letting Trump steer his policy. When asked if he planned to talk to the former U.S. president, he shrugged it off.
“I’ll speak to him again when it matters,” he said. “I don’t have a burning issue to speak with the president about right now. When America wants to come back and have the discussions on the trade side, we will have those discussions.”
Carney knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s building Canada’s future with or without American input.
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