Canadian Prime Minister: "Supports APEC's Core Value of Joint Prosperity Based on Trade and International Cooperation" [Gyeongju APEC]

Special Address at the APEC Summit on the 31st

President Lee Jae-myung is greeting Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, who attended the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit held at Gyeongju Hwabaek Convention Center (HICO) on the 31st. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated in his special address at the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit on the 31st that "Canada deeply supports APEC's core value of 'prospering together based on rules-based trade and international cooperation.'"

According to Bloomberg News, Prime Minister Carney, serving as a speaker that day, said, "Our world is experiencing one of the most profound changes since the fall of the Berlin Wall," adding, "The old world in which APEC thrived has now disappeared."

Prime Minister Carney elaborated on 'that world,' describing it as "a world that achieved stable growth through rules-based free trade and the spread of investment," and "a world upon which the prosperity of many countries, including Canada, was built."

He continued, "We must soberly face reality. Nostalgia cannot be a strategy," and emphasized, "Clinging to the past means ignoring the scale of the technological revolution underway alongside geopolitical changes. Transformations are occurring in the fields of life sciences, energy transition, and, above all, artificial intelligence (AI)."

Concluding his speech, Carney announced that Canada has launched new free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the Philippines and Thailand, and plans to conclude the negotiations within the next year.