French outpost off Canada in the spotlight as Macron hosts Carney on symbolic visit

President Emmanuel Macron embarks on a rare and symbolic visit to a remote French territory in the North Atlantic on Saturday, hosting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at a time of growing tensions with Washington. The three-day visit to Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a three-island archipelago of under 6,000 people just 25 kilometres (15 miles) off Newfoundland, will be the first by a French president in over a decade. The trip to France's only remaining possession in North America, a vestige of the huge territories Paris once controlled in what is now Canada and the United States, carries immense symbolic resonance. Macron insists that US President Donald Trump's second mandate has served to prove his point Europe needs to be more sovereign, especially on security. Against the background of an intensifying spat with Trump who has even threatened to annex Canada, Carney has welcomed a proposal for his country to become the European Union's first "associate member". Read moreEU chief invites Canada to be first-ever ‘associate member’ He is due to join Macron on Sunday as the first Canadian premier to visit the territory. The last visit by a French head of state was by François Holla...