In full: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos

It seems that every day we're reminded. that we live in an era of great power. rivalry, that the rules-based order is. fading, that the strong can do what they. can and the weak must suffer what they. must. And this apherimism of Thusidities. is presented as inevitable, as the. natural logic of international relations. reasserting itself. And faced with this logic,

there is a strong tendency for countries. to go along to get along, to. accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that. compliance will buy safety. Well, it won't. So, what are our options? In 1978, the Czech dissident Vaslav. Havl, later president, wrote an essay called the power of the. powerless. And in it, he asked a simple.

question. How did the communist system. sustain itself? And his answer began with a green. grosser. Every morning, this shopkeeper. places a sign in his window, workers of. the world unite. He doesn't believe it. No one does. But he places the sign. anyway to avoid trouble, to signal. compliance, to get along. And because. every shopkeeper on every street does. the same, the system persists,

not through violence alone, but through. the participation of ordinary people in. rituals they privately know to be false. Havl called this living within a lie. The system's power comes not from its. truth, but from everyone's willingness. to perform as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same. source. When even one person stops. performing, when the green grosser. removes his sign, the illusion begins to.

crack. Friends, it is time for companies and. countries to take their signs down. For decades, [applause]. [applause]. for decades, countries like Canada. prospered under what we called the. rules-based international order. We. joined its institutions. We praised its. principles. We benefited from its.

predictability. And because of that, we could pursue. values-based foreign policies under its. protection. We knew the story of the international. rulesbased order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt. themselves when convenient. That trade. rules were enforced s asymmetrically. And we knew that international law. applied with varying rigor depending on. the identity of the accused or the. victim. This fiction was useful and American.

hegemony in particular helped provide. public goods, open sea lanes, a stable. financial system, collective security. and support for frameworks for resolving. disputes. So we placed the sign in the window. We. participated in the rituals. and we 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. Over the past two decades, a series of. crises in finance, health, energy, and. geopolitics have laid bare the risks of. extreme global integration. But more. recently, great powers have begun using. economic integration as weapons. Tariffs. as leverage, financial infrastructure as. coercion, 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 multilateral institutions on which. the middle powers have relied, the WTO, the UN, the COP, the architecture, the. very architecture of collective problem. solving are under threat. And as a result, many countries are. drawing the same conclusions that they. must develop greater strategic autonomy.

in energy, food, critical minerals, in. finance and supply chains. And this. impulse is understandable. A country. that can't feed itself, fuel itself, or. defend itself has few options. When the. rules no longer protect you, you must. protect yourself. But let's be cleareyed about where this. leads. A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile, and less sustainable. And there's another truth. 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. Hegeimons cannot continually monetize. their relationships. Allies will diversify to hedge against. uncertainty. They'll buy insurance, increase options. in order to rebuild sovereignty.

Sovereignty that was once grounded in. rules, but will increasingly be anchored. in the ability to withstand pressure. This room knows this is classic risk. management. Risk management comes at a. price. But that cost of strategic autonomy of. sovereignty can also be shared. Collective investments in resilience are. cheaper than everyone building their own. fortresses.

Shared standards reduce fragmentations. Complimentarities are positive sum. And. the question for middle powers like. Canada is not whether to adapt to the. new reality. We must. The question is. whether we adapt by simply building. higher walls or whether we can do. something more ambitious. Now, Canada was amongst the first to. hear the wakeup call leading us to. fundamentally shift our strategic.

posture. Canadians know that our old comfortable. assumptions that our geography and. alliance memberships automatically. conferred prosperity and security, that assumption is no longer valid. And our new approach rests on what. Alexander Stub, the president of. Finland, has termed valuebased realism. Or to put another way, we aim to be both. principled and pragmatic. Principled in our commitment to. fundamental values, sovereignty,

territorial integrity, the prohibition. of the use of force except when. consistent with the UN charter, and. respect for human rights. and pragmatic. in recognizing that progress is often. incremental, that interests diverge, that not every partner will share all of. our values. So, we're engaging broadly, strategically with open eyes. We. actively take on the world as it is, not. wait around for a world we wish to be.

We are calibrating our relationships so. their depth reflects our values. And. we're prioritizing broad engagement to. maximize our influence given and given. the fluidity of the world at the moment, the risks that this poses and the stakes. for what comes next. And we are no longer just relying on the. strength of our values, but also the. value of our strength. We are building that strength at home. Since my government took office, we have.

cut taxes on incomes, on capital gains. and business investment. We have removed. all federal barriers to interprovincial. trade. We are fast-tracking a trillion. dollars of investments in energy, AI, critical minerals, new trade corridors, and beyond. We're doubling our defense. spending by the end of this decade, and. we're doing so in ways that build our. domestic industries. And we are rapidly diversifying abroad. We've agreed a comprehensive strategic. partnership with the EU, including.

joining SAFE, the European defense. procurement arrangements. We have signed. 12 other trade and security deals on. four continents in 6 months. In the past. few days, we've concluded new strategic. partnerships with China and Qatar. We're. negotiating free trade packs with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines, and. Mercur. We're doing something else. To help. solve global problems, we're pursuing. variable geometry. In other words,

different coalitions for different. issues based on common values and. interests. So on Ukraine, we're a core. member of the coalition of the willing. and one of the largest per capita. contributors to its defense and. security. on Arctic sovereignty. We stand firmly. with Greenland and Denmark and fully. support their unique right to determine. Greenland's future. [applause].

[applause]. Our commitment to NATO's Article 5 is. unwavering. So, we're working with our NATO allies, including the Nordic Baltic Gate, to. further secure the alliance's northern. and western flanks, including through. Canada's unprecedented investments in. over the horizon radar, in submarines, in aircraft, and boots on the ground, boots on the ice.

Canada strongly opposes tariffs over. Greenland and calls for focused talks to. achieve our shared objectives of. security and prosperity in the Arctic. On plurilateral trade, we're championing. efforts to build a bridge between the. Trans-Pacific Partnership in the. European Union, which would create a new. trading block of 1.5 billion people. On. critical minerals, we're forming buyers. clubs anchored in the G7 so that the. world can diversify away from.

concentrated supply. And on AI, we're. cooperating with like-minded democracies. to ensure that we won't ultimately be. forced to choose between hedgeimons and. hyperscalers. This is not naive multilateralism, nor is it relying on. their institutions. It's building. coalitions that work issues by issue. with partners who share enough common. ground to act together.

In some cases, this will be the vast. majority of nations. What it's doing is. creating a dense web of connections. across trade investment culture on which. we can draw for future challenges and. opportunities. argue the middle powers must act. together because if we're not at the. table, we're on the menu. But I'd also say that great powers, great powers can afford for now to go it.

alone. They have the market size, the. military capacity, and the leverage to. dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But. when we only negotiate bilaterally with. a hedgeimon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what's offered. We compete. with each other to be the most. accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It's the. performance of sovereignty while. accepting subordination. In a world of great power rivalry, the.

countries in between have a choice. Compete with each other for favor or to. combine to create a third path with. impact. We shouldn't allow the rise of hard. power to blind us to the fact that the. power of legitimacy, integrity, and. rules will remain strong if we choose to. wield them together, which brings me back to Havl. What does it mean for middle powers to.

live the truth? Well, first, it means. naming reality. Stop invoking. rules-based international order as. though it still functions as advertised. Call it what it is, a system of. intensifying great power rivalry where. the most powerful pursue their interests. using economic integration as coercion. It means acting consistently applying. the same standards to allies and rivals. When middle powers criticize economic.

intimidation from one direction but stay. silent when it comes from another, we. are keeping the sign in the window. It means building what we claim to. believe in. rather than waiting for the old order to. be restored. It means creating. institutions and agreements that. function as described. And it means reducing the leverage that. enables coercion. That's building a. strong domestic economy. should be every. government's immediate priority.

And diversification internationally is. not just economic prudence. It's a. material foundation for honest foreign. policy because countries earn the right. to principled stands by reducing their. vulnerability to retaliation. So Canada. has what the world wants. We are an. energy superpower. We hold vast reserves. of critical minerals. We have the most. educated population in the world. Our.

pension funds are amongst the world's. largest and most sophisticated. investors. In other words, we have. capital, talent. We also have a. government with immense fiscal capacity. to act decisively. And we have the values to which many. others aspire. Canada is a pluralistic society that. works. Our public square is loud, diverse, and free. Canadians remain. committed to sustainability. We are a stable and reliable partner in.

a world that is anything but. A partner. that builds and values relationships for. the long term. And we have something else. We have a. recognition of what's happening and a. determination to act accordingly. We. understand that this rupture calls for. more than adaptation. It calls for. honesty about the world as it is. We are. taking the sign out of the window. We. know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not.

a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just. This is the task of. the middle powers, the countries that. have the most to lose from a world of. fortresses and a most to gain from. genuine cooperation. The powerful have their power, but we have something too. The capacity. to stop pretending, to name reality, to.

build our strength at home, and to act. together. That is Canada's path. We. choose it openly and confidently, and it. is a path wide open to any country. willing to take it with us. Thank you. very much.