Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with King Charles on March 3 during a visit to the United Kingdom after Canada and European countries held a summit to chart a path for peace in Ukraine.
A day before the meeting, Trudeau said he would discuss “matters of importance” with the King.
Details about the meeting between King Charles and Trudeau have not been released, except for the Royal Family posting a picture of the two men shaking hands on social media, and saying the audience took place at Sandringham House on the morning of March 3.
The day prior, Trudeau had attended the Securing our Future Summit in London, where leaders met to discuss security for Europe and Ukraine. The summit took place after U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a contentious meeting at the White House about the path forward to end the conflict with Russia.
After the summit, Trudeau was asked by reporters what his message will be for the King, and whether he will ask him to speak out for Canadian sovereignty amid ‘51st state’ rhetoric from the United States.
“As always, we will discuss matters of importance to Canada and to Canadians, and I can tell you that nothing seems more important to Canadians right now than standing up for our sovereignty and our independence as a nation,” Trudeau said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump in recent months has repeatedly said that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, saying it would then avoid tariffs and benefit from lower taxes and increased military protection. Canadian politicians of all stripes have outright rejected the idea.
Trudeau was also asked by reporters whether he asked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to speak up for Canadian sovereignty.
Trudeau did not directly answer the question, saying he knows “our allies will continue to be there to count on Canada and defend Canada in our our strong sense of identity and independence.”
Starmer visited Washington last week, where he was asked by reporters during a joint press conference with Trump whether he had broached the 51st state topic with the U.S. president. He was also asked whether the King had expressed any concerns about Trump’s comments.
In his response, Starmer said that the UK and United States are “the closest of nations, and we had very good discussions today, but we didn’t discuss Canada.”
51st State
Trump made the first 51st state comment directly to Trudeau when the two met in Mar-a-Lago in late November 2024 to discuss Trump’s threat to impose broad tariffs if border security is not strengthened. Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc attended the meeting in Florida and initially said he viewed Trump’s comment as a joke during “cheerful banter” among participants.
In his recollection of the meeting, Trudeau said when this topic came up the group “started musing back and forth about this.”
“When I started to suggest, ‘Well, maybe there could be a trade for Vermont or California for certain parts,’ [Trump] immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore and we moved onto a different conversation,” Trudeau told MSNBC in an interview aired on Jan. 9.
Commenting on the Mar-a-Lago meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump spoke about the 51st state after Trudeau had told him Canada would cease to exist if steep U.S. tariffs are imposed.
Rubio told American journalist Catherine Herridge on Feb. 21 that Trump responded to Trudeau’s comment by saying “if you can’t exist without cheating in trade, then you should become a state.”
Trump has said that the United States “subsidizes” Canada, giving figures ranging from US $100 billion to $250 billion. Canadian leaders have pointed out that the deficit is due to the fact that the United States is buying Canadian oil at a discount, and with that removed, the United States in fact enjoys a trade surplus with Canada.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said over the weekend that border-related tariffs on Canada and Mexico will go ahead as planned on March 4, but that the specific amount is yet to be announced by Trump.
The Trump administration initially announced the imposition of broad 25 percent tariffs in early February before granting a 30-pause on Feb. 3 to assess security measures taken by Canada and Mexico to deal with drug trafficking and illegal migration.
Since Feb. 3, Canada has designated Mexican drug cartels and two transnationals street gangs as terrorist organizations. Mexico has pledged to send 10,000 troops to secure its border with the United States and has extradited 29 drug cartel figures to the country last week.
