In a landmark speech to the World Economic Forum, Canadian PM Mark Carney said the rules-based order was fading, and that the world was entering a brutal reality in geopolitics. Photo: WEF.
With the rules-based order seemingly teetering on the brink of collapse, led by an increasingly belligerent US President Donald Trump, leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland have called for middle powers to unite.
In the lead-up to the WEC in Davos, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb separately or jointly reached out directly to Trump with conciliatory messages encouraging discussion over his recent inflammatory rhetoric over the Danish territory of Greenland.
In a Truth Social post on 17 January, Trump posted that he intends to impose a new 10 per cent tariff on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, Netherlands, and Finland from 1 February, rising to 25 per cent from 1 June for those countries not supporting his Arctic expansionism.
The European Parliament immediately responded by freezing the approval of an American trade agreement that was announced last July by President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but was yet to be ratified.
“The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July,” Ms von der Leyen said in her speech to the WEF on Tuesday. “In politics as in business, a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.”
In their message to Trump, PM Støre and President Stubb wrote, “…we believe we all should work to take this down and de-escalate – so much is happening around us where we need to stand together”.
In response, Trump copied his reply in an unhinged rant on Truth Social.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” President Trump reportedly said to Støre, seemingly not understanding that, while the Nobel Foundation’s committee is appointed by the Norwegian Government, the government has no control over who the committee awards its annual prizes to.
“I can confirm that this is a text message that I received yesterday afternoon from President Trump,” Støre confirmed on 19 January. “It was his decision to share his message with other NATO leaders.”
President Macron also texted Trump, saying the two countries agreed on Syria and could do “great things” in Iran, but added, “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland”.
While President Trump didn’t publicly respond to President Macron’s text, he disclosed what was clearly a private message from the French President publicly, an act that deviates from long-standing diplomatic norms.
Addressing the WEC on 20 January, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney talked about what he described as a “rupture in the world order”, the “end of a nice story” and “the beginning of a brutal reality in world geopolitics”.
“It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry,” Prime Minister Carney said.
“That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.
“For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order,” he continued. “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.
“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.”
On Greenland’s sovereignty, the Canadian leader said, “we stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future”.
“Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focused talks to achieve our shared objectives of security and prosperity in the Arctic.”
President Macron was no less resolute.
“This is [a] shift towards a world without effective collective governance and where multilateralism is weakened by powers that obstruct it or turn away from it, and rules are undermined,” he told the WEF audience.
“Without collective governance, cooperation gives way to relentless competition.
“Competition from the [US] through trade agreements that undermine our export interests, demand maximum concessions and openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe, combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs are fundamentally unacceptable – even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.”
He called on the EU and the G7 to unite to deliver results through cooperation.
“Addressing global economic imbalances is our key priority,” he said, saying the EU and the G7 would commit to “deliver this global agenda in order to fix global imbalances through more cooperation, and we will do our best in order to have a stronger Europe, much stronger and more autonomous”.
“But we do prefer respect to bullies,” he said in closing.
“We do prefer science to Plotinism, and we do prefer rule of law to brutality. You are welcome in Europe and you are more than welcome to France.”
But if Carney’s and Macron’s messages were too subtle, Denmark’s delegate to the European Parliament Anders Vistisen left the President – and the entire WEF audience – in no doubt as to Europe’s feelings on the matter.
“Let me put this in words you might understand,” Mr Vistisen said. “Mr President, f*ck off!”
