Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney meets King Charles at Buckingham Palace

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has met the King as part of his first foreign trip since being sworn in.

The former Bank of England governor met King Charles, who is Canada’s head of state, at Buckingham Palace after Mr Carney succeeded Justin Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister.

The King was pictured grinning as he shook Mr Carney’s hand in the 1844 Room of the royal residence.

Footage from the meeting showed the King telling Mr Carney: “Very good to see you. Congratulations.”

Mr Carney replied as they shook hands: “Your Majesty. Lovely to see you…Thank you very much.”

He told the King pointing to his own lapel: “Bit of a disaster today sir. My Order of Canada pin broke.”

Mr Carney added: “Yes. It fell on the tarmac… which is proof that our founding people is the British,” prompting a chuckle from the King.

The monarch offered his pin before telling his visitor: “It’s a great treat to see you again”, with Mr Carney replying: “Much to catch up on.”

Jovial moment was a preamble to more troubling discussions

“Very good to see you, congratulations” were the King’s opening remarks to Mark Carney in the 18th century-room at Buckingham Palace.

A very jovial start to the 45 seconds that the palace allowed to be filmed.

Short, yes, but it’s actually quite rare that a TV camera is allowed in for the start of an audience – even that says a lot.

A sign that it was important for all sides that this meeting was properly seen between Canada’s monarch, King Charles as their head of state, and his new prime minister in that realm, at what is a difficult time.

The small talk, with Mark Carney explaining how his Order of Canada pin had broken and the King offering to give him his, was a preamble to no doubt more troubling discussions, with Carney saying there was “much to catch up on”.

For 30 minutes the two men were then left alone to talk, as is common practice between the monarch and any of his prime ministers. What they talked about, we don’t know.

Last week, when the King met members of the Canadian Senate, we were told they discussed topics of great concern to all parties, both nationally and internationally.

You would expect that President Trump’s remarks about turning Canada into the 51st state, and the ongoing war of words over trade, inevitably would have been on the list of topics for discussion this time. And just maybe how the King may be helpful.

King Charles is one man who hasn’t been in Donald Trump’s firing line, with the president publicly saying he respects him.

Mr Carney, who was sworn in on Friday, will also be meeting UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during his trip to London.

Canada’s new PM arrived from Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron as he seeks to shore up European alliances at a critical time for relations between Canada and its bigger neighbour, the US.

During his swearing-in ceremony, Mr Carney noted the country was built on the bedrock of three peoples: French, British and Indigenous.

He also said Canada is fundamentally different from America and will “never, ever, in any way shape or form, be part of the United States”.

It comes as US President Donald Trump has been threatening Canada’s sovereignty by repeatedly suggesting he would make it the 51st US state.

Mr Carney will try to steer his country through a trade war brought by Mr Trump, who has slapped 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products from 2 April.

Canada, which is the biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminium to the US, last week announced 25% retaliatory tariffs on those metals along with computers, sports equipment and other products worth $20bn in total.

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