Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to Europe on June 11 to meet with leaders of France and Ireland before attending the G7 Summit next week.
Carney’s trip to Europe from June 11 to June 17 will include a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris to “deepen the Canada-France partnership in key sectors,” including trade, defence, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and critical minerals, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a June 7 news release.
Carney last travelled to Paris in March 2025, which was his first bilateral visit as prime minister.
He and Macron will also hold bilateral talks on “key commercial and industrial partnerships,” such as in aerospace, defence, security, critical minerals, and advanced technologies.
Carney will then travel to Dublin and meet the Taoiseach of Ireland, Micheál Martin, marking the first bilateral visit to Ireland by a Canadian prime minister in nearly a decade.
Carney will also visit County Mayo, where his grandparents immigrated from in the early 1920s, and meet with Irish President Catherine Connolly to discuss expanding the two nations’ cultural and people-to-people ties, as well as ties in agri-food, digital innovation, AI, pharmaceuticals, and climate sectors.
The prime minister’s visits to Paris and Dublin come as his government is seeking to diversify trade away from the United States and double non-U.S. exports within a decade amid tariffs imposed by the U.S. administration.
“Ireland and France are two of Canada’s closest and longest-standing partners,” Carney said in the news release. “In an increasingly uncertain world, we are deepening these ties – and those across the G7 – to build greater certainty, security, and prosperity for Canadians and our partners across the globe.”
After his visits in Paris and Dublin, Carney will then attend the 2026 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Évian, France, which is set to run from June 15 to June 17. The PMO said the prime minister will focus on Canada’s “role and expertise as a reliable partner on economic security, clean energy, and emerging technologies, including AI and quantum.”
The summit was delayed by a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the White House would host a UFC fight on June 14, which is Flag Day in the United States and Trump’s 80th birthday.
The government of France has said priorities at the summit this year will include “settling major geopolitical crises,” including through G7 support to Ukraine, online protection for children, combatting organized crime, and “the new rules of play of global governance.”
During a June 4 press conference, where he unveiled his government’s new AI strategy, Carney said the development of child safety standards will be a priority at the G7 Summit this month.
The G7 includes Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy. While the European Union also participates in talks, it is not counted as part of the G7 name. Canada hosted the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, last year.
Canada-Ireland Ties
Carney met with 150 Irish business leaders in Ottawa in May, and the Irish embassy in Canada said on social media that the discussion focussed on Ireland-Canada economic opportunities, innovation, investment, and growth across key global sectors.
Canada and Ireland recorded $6 billion in bilateral trade in 2025, with Canada exporting $1.1 billion–primarily cereals–and importing $4.9 billion, largely in pharmaceutical products.
Trade between the two countries is supported by the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which has been provisionally in force since 2017 but has not yet been ratified by Ireland.
Carney met with Martin in Ottawa last September, when Martin indicated Ireland would move to ratify the CETA deal. A joint statement by Carney and Martin said the leaders agreed on the importance of Ireland completing full ratification of the agreement by 2026.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
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