French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met on Sunday in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a French archipelago about 25 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland, and announced closer cooperation on energy, defence, critical minerals and cross-border security.

Macron said France and Canada are “two great independent nations who want to stay that way” and said he wants agreements to secure more Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) for Europe’s Atlantic coast, which today goes mainly to Asia. It was the first visit by a Canadian prime minister to the territory and the first by a French president since 2014. The meeting came weeks after Donald Trump posted an image of the archipelago covered by the American flag, according to Reuters, and amid Ottawa’s rapprochement with the European Union.