DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – JANUARY 20: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 20, 2026.
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Days after Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a speech at Davos warning of economic coercion by the world’s superpowers, US President Donald Trump withdrew his invitation to Canada to serve on a peace commission.
“Dear Prime Minister Carney, please allow this letter to confirm that the Peace Committee withdraws its invitation to you regarding Canada’s accession,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social Thursday night.
Carney said last week that he intends to join the board, but details, including financial terms, have not yet been worked out. Countries seeking permanent membership must pay $1 billion.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this week, Carney said the world’s “middle powers” needed to come together to resist coercion from world powers.
“Great powers have begun to use economic integration as a weapon, using tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, and supply chains as vulnerabilities to exploit,” he said.
Mr. Carney did not name any countries, but Mr. Trump later responded on the sidelines of the forum: “Canada lives because of the United States. Mark, please remember that next time you speak.”
Hours before Carney’s speech, Trump posted on social media a digitally manipulated image of a map of Greenland, Venezuela and Canada covered in American flags.
Recent events have shown that the “rules-based international order” is effectively dead, and the world’s superpowers are “using economic integration as a weapon of coercion to pursue their interests,” Carney said in his speech.
The two countries’ long-standing alliance has come under significant strain during President Trump’s second term, who calls the neighbor the nation’s 51st state and has targeted it with tariffs.
On October 7, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump (Republican) and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.
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The Peace Commission, chaired by Trump, was originally designed to oversee the demilitarization and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after a two-year war with Israel. But President Trump said he expected the council to eventually play a broader role comparable to that of the United Nations, a mandate that has raised concerns among several U.S. allies.
Mr. Trump has also gained support from countries in the Middle East region, including Türkiye, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, as well as emerging countries such as Indonesia.
However, several world powers and traditional Western allies of the United States, including Australia, France, Germany, and Italy, were more cautious, and some rejected the proposal. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper reportedly said the UK “will not be one of the signatories”, citing concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to join.
Russia and China have also been invited to join the board. Putin reportedly told Russia’s Security Council that China had not confirmed whether it would participate, but that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was still considering the proposal.
Mr Carney’s WEF speech follows a high-profile visit to China last week where he reached a broad agreement with President Xi Jinping to reduce tariffs and rebuild relations.
As part of the agreement, the Chinese government will reduce tariffs on many agricultural products from Canada, while the Ottawa government will increase import quotas for Chinese electric vehicles into its market at a most-favoured-nation tariff rate of 6.1%.
Mr. Carney praised his strategic partnership with Mr. Xi, underlined the global instability caused by President Trump’s foreign policy shifts and destructive trade policies, and emphasized the importance of bilateral relations in the face of the “new world order.”
