Toronto/CMEDIA: Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, travelled to Sydney and Canberra, Australia, this week and met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, marking the first bilateral visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to Australia in nearly two decades.
Carney was accompanied by the Minister of National Defence, David J. McGuinty, and the Minister of Finance and National Revenue, François-Philippe Champagne.
Canada and Australia are both members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – a free trade agreement that represents 595 million consumers and 11% of global GDP.
A joint statement outlining new partnerships was released by the leaders, in investment, defence and security, critical minerals, energy, and artificial intelligence (AI).
“Canada and Australia are more than friends – we are family, with shared histories, values, and cultures. As Canada forges new partnerships and coalitions abroad, Australia is a natural partner in this mission. By working closely together in energy, critical minerals, investment, defence, and AI to move faster in these endeavours, we will create more opportunities for our peoples,” Carney said
Carney Welcomed Australia into the Critical Minerals Production Alliance, an initiative launched under Canada’s G7 Presidency in 2025 to expand critical minerals production and processing capacity and diversify supply chains from mine to market.
Holding vast reserves of critical minerals that are key to defence, manufacturing, and technologies, including batteries, cars, and the AI systems of the future, both Canada and Australia opt for closer collaboration to boost bilateral investment in creating high-paying careers in mining, harnessing clean energy opportunities, and strengthening security and defence.
A new Clean Energy Partnership was also launched by the leaders to catalyse new trade and investment opportunities, scale-up clean energy technologies, and modernise electricity grids.
Australia being Canada’s largest defence partner in the Indo-Pacific, the partnership focuses on growing their relationship and increasing cooperation across military exercises, procurement, and intelligence.
These ties would further strengthen by the training of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel on the Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar (A-OTHR) system beginning in Australia in mid-2026 – enabling Canada to better detect and deter threats across the Arctic.
As a key component of Canada’s North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) modernisation plan, The A-OTHR system will provide advanced early warning, enable faster detection and decision making by the CAF for airborne threats, and provide long-range surveillance to meet Canada’s domestic and continental security needs.
Also committed to exploring concrete mechanisms to facilitate the movement of defence equipment and personnel between our two countries, both Canada and Australia will aim initiate discussions on establishing a Status of Forces Agreement.to remove unnecessary barriers to operational collaboration.
To enable greater integration of our defence sectors and streamline procurement and innovation, Carney and Albanese agreed to advance industrial collaboration to identify mutually beneficial options to strengthen defence trade, industrial collaboration, and cooperation on advanced technologies to reduce export controls, reciprocal intellectual property sharing, and the co-production of military capabilities.
This partnership would also intensify coordination to tackle criminal networks, smuggling, foreign intelligence manipulation, and cybercrimes.
It would undertake joint efforts to safeguard the Arctic, and expand cooperation on emergency management and disaster risk reduction and will help ensure our security, emergency response, and law enforcement officials are well equipped to tackle a wide array of threats.
Rapidly scaling up sovereign AI, compute capabilities, and other emerging technologies, both Canada and Australia would accelerate each other’s efforts and welcomed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on AI Safety enabling greater collaboration between Canada and Australia’s AI safety institutes, including to share expertise.
In Sydney, Carney welcomed a MOU to deepen investment cooperation between Canadian pension funds and Australian superannuation funds – removing barriers to investment and supporting nation-building projects at home to advance Canada’s mission to mobilise $1 trillion in total investments over the next five years.
While in Australia, Carney met with business leaders and Australian pension fund executives who collectively manage nearly $7 trillion in capital to identify key sectors with immense investment potential. During the visit, the IFM announced their intention to invest up to $10 billion in Canada.
Carney and Albanese also agreed to launch negotiations to modernise the Canada-Australia Tax Treaty which would facilitate increased two-way investment between Canada and Australia.
In parallel, under the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation Partnership, Canada, Australia, and India will advance a MOU to formalise strengthened collaboration on the development and deployment of AI to create opportunities for our businesses, including small and medium-sized businesses and start-ups.
