Macron hosts Carney on trip to outpost off Canada

French President Emmanuel Macron today embarks on a rare and symbolic visit to a remote French territory in the North Atlantic, hosting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at a time of growing tensions with Washington.

The three-day visit to Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a three-island archipelago of less than 6,000 people just 25km off Newfoundland, would be the first by a French president in more than a decade.

The trip to France’s only remaining possession in North America, a vestige of the huge territories Paris once controlled in what is now Canada and the US, carries immense symbolic resonance.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, stands outside the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday.

Photo: AFP

Macron insists that US President Donald Trump’s second mandate has served to prove his point that Europe needs to be more sovereign, especially on security.

Against the background of an intensifying spat with Trump who has even threatened to annex Canada, Carney has welcomed a proposal for his country to become the EU’s first “associate member.”

He is due to join Macron tomorrow as the first Canadian premier to visit the territory. The last visit by a French head of state was by Francois Hollande in 2014.

The archipelago is one of several strategically-located French overseas territories that span the globe.

“Saint Pierre and Miquelon is not some insignificant remnant of empire to be managed piecemeal. It is France and Europe in North America,” said French Senator Annick Girardin, a former overseas territories minister.

Trump, who has repeatedly described Canada as the “51st” US state and dismissed its premier as “governor Carney,” earlier this month posted an image with a map of North America in which areas including Canada were colored in with the US flag.

Carney has in turn described his nation as “the most European of non-European countries.”

The joint visit would underscore that Canada and France countries share “the same values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for the sovereignty of nations,” the French presidential palace said.

“In a world marked by the return of power politics, geopolitical tensions and new forms of dependency, France and Canada share a common ambition: to work together, and with all countries that share these values, to strengthen their capacity to make decisions and act independently,” the Elysee said.

Carney’s office quoted him as saying that “Canada and France share more than a border. We share a history, common values, and a resolute commitment to building a more secure and prosperous world. In an uncertain world, President Macron and I understand the importance of this relationship”.