French government says Canada should broaden its trade with Europe, not rely on the U.S.

France’s ambassador to Canada says Ottawa must choose between tying itself entirely to Washington or broadening its links to partner more with Europe — while also calling out Canada’s “weak” military engagement.

“This nagging question of the future American commitment offers, in any case more than ever, the opportunity for Europe, France and Canada to play a role together,” Michel Miraillet said in a French-language speech on Apr. 4 to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.

Miraillet argued that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year was the culmination of a decade of Moscow and Beijing working to weaken democracies.

He said both Russia and China have sold their citizens a narrative of patriotic nationalism, while building up their military capabilities and involvement in developing countries, in anticipation of an inevitable decline of a faltering western world.

“This relationship goes far beyond the assertion of common interests. (Vladimir) Putin and Xi Jinping share the same hatreds, that of the West, which they want to weaken and push back and that of democracy, which according to them leads to decadence and the disintegration of nations,” he said.

“They also became convinced of the inevitability of America’s erasure from the international stage.”

He said Putin is hoping that Americans elect an isolationist president in fall 2024, and that Europeans opt for the comforts of Russian oil over the difficulty of the higher energy bills they’re paying as a result of sticking to values and democracy.

Miraillet noted France’s recent boost in military spending and proposals for deeper continental military integration. He noted France, which is a major arms producer, is pushing for more military manufacturing on the continent.

Miraillet said Canada should deepen its partnership with countries such as France, in the same way that Australia has formed alliances with South Korea and Japan.

He said that as today’s world organizes itself along new axes of power, with the China-Russia pact on one side and democracies on the other, the democratic world shouldn’t align itself only with American interests — those, he said, “are not necessarily always convergent with ours, as with yours, dear Canadian friends.”

“There is, shall I say, a unique opportunity for Canada and France to act together, which involves stepping out of their comfort zone and beyond the games of internal politics to have a great destiny.”

He said “friendshoring,” a U.S. concept recently endorsed by Canada that holds that allies should rely on each other for more resilient supply chains, is “no longer an option.” He added that Canada shouldn’t constrain itself to North American partners.

Miraillet said France, in particular, wants to partner with Canada on critical minerals for green technology, on fledging small-scale nuclear technology and on hydrogen projects that can help electrify public transit.

“France and Canada have no other path than that of closer technological and industrial co-operation, of a strengthened capitalistic relationship in what is not a de-globalization phase as some have said, but more simply a decline in trade on a global scale.”

Navigating that transition requires close friends, in order for multilateral institutions to have any hope of fighting climate change, big tech and pandemics, Miraillet argued.