OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Australia, where Canada is seeking more collaboration in trade and defence to build on already strong intelligence ties.
Carney arrived in Sydney midday Tuesday local time, which was Monday evening in Canada, and he is meeting business leaders in the city before heading Thursday to the capital, Canberra, to address the Australian Parliament.
Australia is a fellow Commonwealth nation and partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, and it's also Canada's largest two-way source of foreign-direct-investment in the Indo-Pacific.
The Asia Pacific Foundation's Vina Nadjibulla says Australia is "a natural partner" for Canada as it tries expanding trade with Indo-Pacific countries that respect global rules.
She says Canberra has also signed onto a handful of initiatives Canada has launched on shoring up supply chains for critical minerals to lessen the reliance western countries have on China.
The two countries signed an agreement last year for Canada to buy an over-the-horizon radar system from Australia, for use in the Arctic, and Nadjibulla said both could build on this through defence-industrial projects touching on cybersecurity or quantum technology.