Carney says he's focused on building up Canada as Trump's global trade war escalates
Carney said there is a lot to do in Canada and his government is focused on 'what we can control.'
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Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Trump will meet Friday with leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to sign US-brokered peace deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to sign a peace deal Friday at the White House that could potentially put an end to decades of conflict, President Donald Trump said. Trump said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would also be signing agreements with the U.S. to 'pursue Economic opportunities together, so we can fully unlock the potential of the South Caucasus Region.'
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump will meet Friday with leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to sign US-brokered peace deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are expected to sign a peace deal Friday at the White House that could potentially put an end to decades of conflict, President Donald Trump said. Trump said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev would also be signing agreements with the U.S. to 'pursue Economic opportunities together, so we can fully unlock the potential of the South Caucasus Region.' 'Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to 'TRUMP,'' Trump wrote Thursday night on his Truth Social site. The prospective agreement could potentially put an end to decades of conflict and set the stage for a reopening of key transportation corridors across the South Caucasus that have been shut since the early 1990s. Three U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of the announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreements included a major breakthrough establishing a key transit corridor across the region, which had been a hang-up in peace talks The agreement, according to the officials, would give the U.S. leasing rights to develop the corridor and name it the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. It would link Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan region, which is separated from the rest of the country by a 32-kilometer (20-mile) patch of Armenia's territory. The transit corridor is expected to eventually include a rail line, oil and gas lines, and fiber optic lines, allowing for the movement of goods and eventually people. The deal does not call for the U.S. to pay for the construction of the transit corridor, but instead for private corporations to develop it. The deal was reached after a visit earlier this year by Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff to Azerbaijan's capital of Baku and continued talks between the parties. Nearly four decades of bloodshed between the two Armenia and Azerbaijan faced off for nearly four decades of fighting for control of the Karabakh region, which was known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh. During the Soviet era, the mostly Armenian-populated region had an autonomous status within Azerbaijan. Long-simmering tensions between Christian Armenians and mostly Muslim Azerbaijanis — fueled by memories of the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by Muslim Ottoman Turks — boiled over as the Soviet Union frayed in its final years. Clashes erupted in 1988 when the region made a bid to join Armenia. As the USSR collapsed in 1991 and Armenia proclaimed independence, hostilities escalated into a full-blown war that killed an estimated 30,000 people and displaced about 1 million. When the war ended with a cease-fire in 1994, ethnic Armenian forces backed by the government in Yerevan not only took control of the region but also captured broad swaths of Azerbaijan. Decades of international mediation efforts failed. In September 2020, Azerbaijan launched an operation to reclaim the region. NATO-member Turkey, which has close ethnic, cultural and historic bonds with Azerbaijan, gave it strong support. In six weeks of fighting involving heavy artillery, rockets and drones that killed more than 6,700 people, Azerbaijani troops drove Armenian forces from areas they controlled outside Karabakh. They also reclaimed broad chunks of Karabakh. A Russia-brokered peace deal saw the deployment of about 2,000 troops to the region as peacekeepers. Azerbaijan then reclaimed all of Karabakh in September 2023 in a lightning military campaign. Over 100,000 people, nearly all of Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian population, fled to Armenia in a week, fearing Azerbaijani rule. Russia, busy with its war in Ukraine, didn't intervene, angering Armenia's leadership, which responded by scaling down its ties with Moscow and bolstering relations with the West. Prospects for peace and better relations After reclaiming Karabakh, Azerbaijan engaged in talks with Armenia on normalizing ties. As part of the negotiations, Armenia agreed to hand over several border villages to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan also has demanded that Armenia rewrite its constitution, which contains a reference to the prospective reunification of Armenia and the Karabakh region. The authorities have yet to present a revised draft in the face of public protests. A key stumbling block in peace talks was Azerbaijan seeking a land bridge to its Nakhchivan region. Azerbaijan doesn't trust Armenia to control the so-called Zangezur corridor, while Armenia had staunchly resisted control by a third party, seeing it as a breach of its sovereignty. It was not clear how that resistance had been overcome in the deal. Russia, which has a military base in Armenia, had previously proposed deploying its troops to secure the corridor. Armenia, bent on scaling down ties with Russia in favor of closer relations with the West, rejected the idea. 'Russia has been left on the sidelines, because the Kremlin has nothing to offer to Armenia and Azerbaijan,' said Olesya Vartanyan, a South Caucasus expert, noting that Moscow's regional influence withered after it focused on the war in Ukraine. 'Russia now lacks resources to deal with Armenia and Azerbaijan,' Vartanyan said. The prospective peace deal also would pave the way for Turkey and Azerbaijan to reopen borders with Armenia that have been shut for nearly four decades, leaving the landlocked country to rely on limited transit routes via Georgia and Iran. Turkey views the prospective agreement as part of its efforts to expand its influence in the South Caucasus, while Armenia sees the reopening of the border and resuming trade with Turkey as a top priority. Pashinyan, who visited Turkey in June in the first such visit by an Armenian leader, has made normalizing ties with Turkey a key goal. 'For Armenia, it would guarantee stability and allow access to the Turkish market, ports and investments, as well as its inclusion into key regional transport corridors,' Vartanyan said, adding that a peace deal would help make Armenia a key link between Europe and Asia. 'Armenia has an extensive transport infrastructure since the Soviet times, including railways and highways that could significantly expand trade routes via South Caucasus,' she said. ___
Global News
2 hours ago
- Global News
Carney says he's focused on building up Canada but talks with U.S. continue
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday Canadians are focused on building up their economy after U.S. President Donald Trump again hit nations around the world with increased tariffs — days after slapping Canada with a higher duty. Carney said there is a lot to do in Canada and his government is focused on 'what we can control.' 'Yes we are having discussions with the Americans but Canadians want us to focus here at home,' the prime minister told reporters in Ottawa. Trump escalated his trade war last week by hitting Canada with a baseline 35 per cent tariff that applies only to goods not covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA. Just after midnight on Thursday, U.S. tariffs on goods from more than 60 other nations and the European Union were increased. The duties range from a low of 10 per cent to 50 per cent for Brazil. Story continues below advertisement 'BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!' Trump posted on social media just after the duties took effect. 2:30 Business Matters: Trump's new tariffs on dozens of countries take effect The EU, Japan and South Korea — which have brokered trade agreement frameworks with the Trump administration — saw U.S. tariffs increase to 15 per cent. Bangladesh and Vietnam were hit with 20 per cent duties. Switzerland saw its tariff increase to 39 per cent. Nations are also being hit with Trump's separate tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and automobiles. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy American tariffs are now at a level not seen in the U.S. in almost a century. The Budget Lab at Yale, a non-partisan policy research centre, has said Americans will see an average tax of 18.3 per cent on imported products, the highest rate since 1934. Story continues below advertisement Ontario Premier Doug Ford told media outlet CNN on Wednesday that 'a tariff on Canada is a tax on the American people.' 'This is hurting the American people,' Ford said, adding that Canada and other countries are 'diversifying our trade.' When asked how Canadians view Trump, Ford said he's 'probably the most disliked politician in the world in Canada because he's attacked his closest family member, and that's the way we look on it.' 'And when I talk to the governors, senators and congresspeople, even Republicans totally disagree, but they're too scared to come out and say anything because the president will go after them,' he added. 0:42 Ford calls Trump 'probably the most disliked politician in the world in Canada' Signs are emerging that Trump's tariffs are starting to drag down the American economy. After the release of a bleak jobs report last week, Trump fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly figures. Story continues below advertisement The U.S. Commerce Department said inflation was ticking slightly upward in June. The greatest hurdle facing Trump's ongoing efforts to realign global trade may be the courts. Last week, Trump's use of a national security statute for the so-called 'Liberation Day' duties and fentanyl-related tariffs faced tough questions from federal appellate judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The judges asked the Trump administration's lawyer about the president's use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act of 1977 to impose duties — despite the fact that the word 'tariff' is found nowhere in the statute. No decision was issued from the bench last week but the pending ruling was clearly weighing on the president just before his global tariffs came into place. 'THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP AMERICA'S GREATNESS WOULD BE A RADICAL LEFT COURT THAT WANTS TO SEE OUR COUNTRY FAIL!' Trump posted on social media just before midnight. 2:06 Carney meets with cabinet, premiers on response to Trump's increased tariffs Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday that Canada should maintain targeted tariffs to pressure the Americans to 'restore a true free-trading relationship.' Story continues below advertisement 'We need to narrowly target our counter-tariffs at things that maximize the impact on the Americans while minimizing impact on Canadians,' he told a press conference in Calgary. Carney told reporters earlier this week that he might lift some counter-tariffs if that helps Canada in the ongoing trade dispute. The Liberal government's approach has divided the premiers. Ford has said Ottawa should hit back hard with counter-tariffs, while Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has called for easing retaliatory measures. Poilievre slammed Carney for failing to get a deal by Trump's Aug. 1 deadline. 'He has made concession after concession to President Trump. He's been bending over backwards for the president and so far has gotten nothing in return,' he said. The Conservative leader pledged to introduce a bill in Parliament this fall to repeal a list of laws he said are blocking production and development. Poilievre will first have to win a seat in the House of Commons in an Aug. 18 byelection. —With files from Alessia Passafiume, Sarah Ritchie and The Associated Press
