Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU

Post by Barrin92 » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 12:28 AM UTC

mindwok wrote: post #12

As an Australian, I have noticed a shift personally in feeling like I identify more with "European" culture, compared to 10 years ago I felt like we were the 51st state and I felt very close with the US. This seems to be shared by others, I remember reading there was a survey that asked Australians who they felt our closest international friend was. The US was the top answer for over a decade, having stolen the crown…

Post by PorciiVorbesc » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 12:29 AM UTC

someperson wrote: post #22

nl wrote: post #5

Just to be clear on this - Australia is primarily interested in methods of reducing trade barriers, not any sort of political union. Australia is economically served well by free trade: most of its production is low cost, high quality primary production of mining outputs and agricultural goods (grains, wool and meat) where if price and quality are the primary selection criteria it wins. The downside of this is that A…

A big part of what makes Australia a better performing economy is maintaining high population growth rate of 1.5%, mostly through immigration. Has had implications on housing affordability, but it's great for GDP statistics. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/aus/aus...

Post by zulux » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 12:30 AM UTC

mindwok wrote: post #12

As an Australian, I have noticed a shift personally in feeling like I identify more with "European" culture, compared to 10 years ago I felt like we were the 51st state and I felt very close with the US. This seems to be shared by others, I remember reading there was a survey that asked Australians who they felt our closest international friend was. The US was the top answer for over a decade, having stolen the crown…

Post by triceratops » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 12:36 AM UTC

akudha wrote: post #23

FlowingRiver wrote: post #3

It is an interesting position we are in here, I suspect we will do the usual thing and walk the middle road. Australia, is part of the Commonwealth, huge trade partner with Asia and allies with the US. Why not throw Canada into the mix some more. This setup is why I call this place an equal opportunist whore. If we can do business with you, we will. I also call it the worlds largest Mining town, but that just acknowl…

India does the same. They try to be friendly (or at least on business terms ) with as many countries as they can and stay out of global conflicts as much as possible. They were buying oil from Russia well after the Russia-Ukraine war started. It also worked well for India as they were able to get rock bottom prices. From a purely economic standpoint, this would make sense. Not sure what to feel about the ethics of it…

Post by jojobas » Thu, Sep 17, 2026, 12:39 AM UTC

temp3452 wrote: post #6

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