Joly says Europeans thought Trump’s annexation threat was a ‘joke’

'The reaction of my colleagues coming from Europe about this absurd threat of annexation was really, "Is that a joke?”' Mélanie Joly told reporters.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly gave a closing news conference at the G7 summit she hosted in Charlevoix, Que., Friday, saying her European Union counterparts initially thought U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty were a “joke.”

Canada hosted the two-day gathering of G7 foreign ministers in the resort town of La Malbaie, Que., where delegates focused largely on the war in Ukraine and efforts to secure a ceasefire deal.

But U.S. tariffs and Trump’s repeated pledge to make Canada the 51st state loomed large, despite not being on the official agenda.

“The reaction of my colleagues coming from Europe about this absurd threat of annexation was really, ‘Is that a joke?’” Joly told reporters.

“I said to them, ‘This is not a joke.’ Canadians are anxious. They’re proud people. And you are here in a sovereign country and we don’t expect this to even be discussed.”

Joly held a bilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, where she says the two had a “long” discussion.

His trip to Charlevoix marks the highest-level visit by the second Trump administration since Trump unleashed tariffs and annexation threats against the U.S.’s closest ally.

But Rubio did not take questions from Canadian reporters, including whether it’s appropriate for a G7 member to threaten the sovereignty of another member.