​​​​​​​TRENTON, Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met US President Donald Trump on Tuesday and firmly said: “Canada is not for sale.”

Carney’s stance was in contradiction to Trump’s, who has said time and again that he wants to annex Canada and make it the 51st state.

Canada’s sovereignty was just one issue discussed during Carney’s visit to the White House, where the two leaders touched on defense, trade, tariffs and other subjects while steering away from any hint of hostilities.

Carney won the federal election at the end of April and one of his main campaign declarations was that he was the best leader to deal with the volatile Trump.

The two did project a friendly attitude, as when Carney told Trump that “some places are never for sale, ever.”

“Never say never, never say never,” Trump responded.

And the president flat out rejected Carney’s request to lift tariffs on Canadian goods, reiterating his position that Canada had nothing that the US wanted.

While Trump refused the request to lift tariffs, Carney said the coming updating of the CUSMA (Canadian-US-Mexico trade agreement) would be “the basis for a broader negotiation.”

“I think we established a good basis today,” Carney said at a news conference from the roof of the Canadian Embassy after his meeting with Trump. “Really, today marked the end of the beginning of a process of the United States and Canada redefining that relationship. The question is how we will co-operate in the future.”