MELBOURNE — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he supports the recent strikes on Iran, though he expressed regret about the actions and framed them as an acute example of a rupturing international order. Speaking at the Lowy Institute in Sydney during the Australian leg of a three-nation trade visit that began in India, Carney said he will address Australia’s Parliament on Thursday and travel to Japan on Friday.
Carney said he was not informed in advance of the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes and that Canada was not asked to participate. In his first public remarks since the conflict began on Feb. 28, he told reporters that, prima facie, the strikes appear inconsistent with international law, while adding that whether they in fact violated legal norms is a matter for others to determine.
He emphasized that Canada continues to support efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to curb actions that threaten international peace and security. Canada has had no diplomatic relations with Iran for about 15 years over reported human rights abuses and last year designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity.
‘We are actively taking on the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world we wish to be,’ Carney said, but he warned that the current conflict is another sign of the failure of the international order. Despite long-standing U.N. efforts, he noted, Iran’s nuclear challenge persists and the United States and Israel acted without engaging the U.N. or consulting allies, including Canada.
Carney reiterated themes from his January address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he argued that the rules-based global order is under strain and that longstanding norms are eroding.
Turning to bilateral cooperation, he said Canada and Australia plan to deepen collaboration on critical minerals, artificial intelligence and defense technologies, noting the two countries have worked together to assemble what they describe as the largest mineral reserve held by trusted democratic nations.