Canada's prime minister will deliver a closely watched address to Australia's parliament as he warns the global rules-based order is undergoing a “rupture”.
Mark Carney is expected to discuss trade, investment and security during meetings with his counterpart Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Thursday, with the war in the Middle East likely to dominate the conversation.
In a speech to the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Wednesday evening, the Canadian prime minister said the old norms underpinning the post-war international system were being “erased” and replaced by a new order.
He argued that middle powers, including Australia, Europe, Japan and Canada, collectively wielded enormous economic and cultural influence.
If co-ordinated effectively, Mr Carney said, they could shape new institutions and trade deals to replace what was being lost.
"Recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons: tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion and supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited," he said.
"We can build something better - more prosperous, more just - than what came before.”
Mr Carney came to global attention in January with a blistering speech on similar themes at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
In his Lowy Institute speech on Wednesday, he called for "rapid de-escalation" in the Middle East after US and Israeli strikes on Iran were met with retaliatory attacks.
Diverting from his initial steadfast support of American and Israeli actions killing Ayatollah Ali Khameini, he said the nations needed to respect the rules of engagement.
"We take this position with some regret, because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order," he said.
Australian National University international relations professor Wesley Widmaier said the conflict was a vexed issue for both Mr Carney and Mr Albanese.
"On the one hand, the United States has, outside of international law, arguably violated the sovereignty of a nation state," Prof Widmaier told AAP.
"On the other hand, (the US and Israel) toppled a regime that was persecuting its own people and may have killed up to 30,000 people just in the last month.
"So how do you reconcile those things? Liberty and equality are sometimes at odds."
