11 March 2025
By Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico
There’s more to the Anglosphere than the US
Mark Carney, the newly elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Mark Carney, the newly elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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With the return of Donald Trump, we need CANZUK more than ever
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK can team up to forge a new global power
CANZUK would not be a military equal of the US, but it would constitute a peer
The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed an acronym doing the rounds over the last few years: CANZUK. This is the name given to the idea of forming a close partnership between Canada (C), Australia (A), New Zealand (NZ) and the UK (you can work that one out). The modern CANZUK movement formed in the early 2010s, initially among a group of Canadian and American intellectuals. It went more mainstream after Brexit, when I published a series of articles and did a series of radio interviews on the idea in the Canadian, Australian, NZ and UK media.
The concept caught on almost straight away in Canada and New Zealand. The Conservative Party of Canada adopted it as an official policy in 2018. The Canadian Liberal Party adopted a policy of free movement among CANZUK countries in 2023 and the incoming Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (along with other candidates) endorsed broader CANZUK cooperation aims in the recent leadership debates. It is thus now a cross-party matter in Canada.
In NZ, CANZUK has been cross-party for some time. Early explicit endorsements came from the smaller Act NZ and NZ First parties, with a version of the scheme (called Closer Commonwealth Economic Relations) being written into the Coalition Agreement for the Labour-NZ First coalition government of 2017-2023. In April 2018, Simon Bridges MP, then Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the National Party, announced his support for CANZUK. Thus, as with Canada, in NZ support for CANZUK has been cross-party.
There has been practical progression on a number of fronts. Free trade agreements between the UK, Australia and NZ, plus the CPTPP, the AUKUS security pact, the Australia-Canada-UK-Switzerland-Singapore medicines accord and the joint CANZUK declaration on Hong Kong.
Now, however, with the return of Donald Trump, pressure for CANZUK cooperation has increased markedly. Up to this point, even a number of its advocates believed it was best seen as a natural implicit partnership, deepening through time, but not necessarily requiring many formal, solely CANZUK pacts. That seems to have changed. Trump’s threats regarding the annexation of Canada and divisions between the US position and that of Canada, Australia and the UK regarding Ukraine have triggered a discussion about the CANZUK countries withdrawing together from the ‘Five Eyes’ security pact (which consists of the CANZUK countries plus the US). Senior Canadian ministers talk openly about the need to deepen existing friendships with the UK and France to help protect them against potential US diplomatic and economic aggression, and to help guarantee Canadian security if the US withdraws military cooperation. Trump’s tariffs against Canada have encouraged Canadians to return to debates from 15 years ago about the importance of diversification away from dependence on trade with the US.
On the UK side, the Labour Government has been attempting a delicate game. For domestic political reasons, it has sought a (largely cosmetic) ‘reset’ in relations with the EU, but it also wants to take advantage of Trump’s offer of a free trade agreement with the US. On Ukraine, the UK has attempted to play a middle man, strongly backing Ukraine but markedly refusing to participate in the near-universal European government denunciation of Trump over the notorious Trump-Vance-Zelensky spat in the White House.
Australia has not been drawn into the tariff wars yet, but it has apparently offered troops to aid in Ukraine peace-keeping efforts if useful. On the other hand, Australia has for some time been very close to the US in a range of matters and may be reluctant to be too publicly against it now. So if the UK does decide to side more explicitly with Canada in current tensions, the position of Australia cannot be taken for granted despite the strong mutual affection of Australians and the British.
The above all said, CANZUK remains the natural geopolitical priority for all of Canada, Australia and the UK. It is how these countries can avoid domination by their regional super-players (for Canada, the US; for the UK, the EU; for Australia, China) without, in the cases of the UK and Australia, submitting to the US instead. Collaborating as roughly equal partners, Canada, Australia and the UK (with NZ coming in alongside Australia), would form a Fourth Global Power alongside the US, the EU and China. CANZUK would not be a military equal of the US, but it would be collectively strong enough to constitute a peer, thus delivering CANZUK members a respect from Americans such as Trump who highly honour strength that they do not have separately.
Natural affinities are a key underpinning of CANZUK, but in our current environment, the natural convergence of these countries may not be enough to secure a deep enough CANZUK fast enough for the world’s demand for it. It is perhaps time to start thinking about negotiating a formal CANZUK pact.
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Andrew Lilico is an economist and writer.
Columns are the author's own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of CapX.