Canada, France to co-operate on space launches as part of Carney’s pivot to EU

Canada, France to co-operate on space launches as part of Carney’s pivot to EU STEVEN CHASE SENIOR PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER PAUL WALDIE EUROPE CORRESPONDENT SAINT-PIERRE AND MIQUELON AND LONDON PUBLISHED 36 MINUTES AGO Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and France's President Emmanuel Macron hold a joint press statement on the French self-governing territory Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, on Sunday. LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. Canada and France will start sharing space-launch systems and satellite data reception facilities, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Sunday. The two leaders − both headed to New York next week for United Nations General Assembly sessions − could have met in Manhattan. But Mr. Carney and Mr. Macron chose to hold a working lunch on the archipelago of nearly 6,000 French citizens located 25 kilometres off Newfoundland and Labrador’s Burin Peninsula. The meeting was meant as a show of solidarity and confirmation of sovereignty in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex America’s neighbours. It was also a demonstration of how Canada is deepening ties with other allies as Ottawa stares down an increasingly volatile and protectionist U.S. government. It takes place only a few days after Canada was offered “associate membership” in the EU and less than two weeks after Mr. Trump, who has made no secret of his desire to control Greenland and Canada, released a social media post with the U.S. flag covering all of North America, including parts of the Caribbean and the area where Saint-Pierre and Miquelon lies. “Only a few kilometres separate Canada and France at their closest point,” Mr. Carney said Sunday. “Our values ​​are even closer.“ Carney’s pivot to Europe takes him to French islands off Newfoundland He laid wreaths with Mr. Macron at a monument to the Free French forces and local volunteers who peacefully seized control of the archipelago in 1941, rejecting the puppet Vichy regime that governed France under the Nazis. “They acted on principle,” Mr. Carney said of those who rallied to France’s defence during the Second World War. “History remembers those who act. Those who stand up for their sovereignty.” He said the Canada-France partnership lies at the heart of…