At UN, Canada's foreign minister walks fine line between pushing back at Trump and keeping peace

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TORONTO (AP) — Canada's foreign minister walked a fine line at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, pushing back at President Donald Trump's assertions of unfettered U.S. power while trying to avoid provoking her country's biggest trade partner.

Trump famously said at his inauguration that “during every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.” His ensuing actions have followed suit, including calls to make Canada the 51st state and vows to put sweeping 25% tariffs on Canadian products.

He has also derided the U.N., asking before the General Assembly on Sept. 23, “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” and saying that “not only is the U.N. not solving the problems it should, too often it’s actually creating new problems for us to solve.”

He has infuriated Canadians, and Foreign Minister Anita Anand delivered gentle pushbacks on Monday when she told the General Assembly that, "multilateralism remains our best hope to address global challenges rather than rejecting international norms.”

Switching to Canada's second official language, French, she said, “Today, the multilateral system is threatened and some countries are turning toward protectionism and unilateralism.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney won the country’s election fueled by Trump’s annexation threats and trade war, and he has tried to improve relations ahead of a review of the free trade deal next year. More than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. and Canada recently dropped many of its retaliatory tariffs to match U.S. tariff exemptions for goods covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact.

“The emphasis on both resilience and multilateralism can be understood as a response to the Trump White House’s current trade and foreign policies,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. “The growing level of uncertainty on the global stage is triggering a rethinking of the country’s global role in the era of Trump 2.0."

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Gillies reported from Toronto and Weissenstein reported from Dobbs Ferry, New York.