Canada and Turkey Sign Strategic Partnership as Carney Makes First Bilateral Visit by a Canadian Leader

Canada and Turkey raised their relations to a strategic partnership on Thursday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney met President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on the first bilateral visit to Turkey by a Canadian leader.

Erdogan welcomed Carney with an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex. They met one to one before chairing delegation talks, and ministers from both countries signed agreements on cooperation in energy, defence and air transport. Foreign Minister Anita Anand also met her Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Ankara.

Four pillars and a three year plan

The partnership rests on four pillars: trade and investment, defence and security, energy, and ties between people. A three year action plan sits under it, aimed at jobs and more chances for companies in the two countries to work together.

Carney said the partnership would bring "new opportunities for our workers and businesses, and greater security and prosperity for both our peoples." Erdogan called the day a historic step and said the two countries had overcome a disconnect that had lasted for years. "Now we are launching a new era between Turkiye and Canada," he said.

Trade talks open next month

Erdogan said the two sides hope to raise their trade volume from about 3 billion dollars to 5 billion dollars first, and then to 10 billion. Negotiators will meet in Ankara next month for the first round of free trade talks, and the joint statement said the two leaders agreed to work toward concluding a Canada-Turkey free trade agreement. Export Development Canada and Turkey's Eximbank will also sign a deal to help companies from both countries cooperate on projects in third countries. Carney travels to Istanbul on Friday to meet Turkish business leaders and investors.

Why Ottawa is looking beyond Washington

Carney is on a global trade push meant to buffer Canada against its trade war with the United States, where President Donald Trump has applied sweeping tariffs and questioned Canadian sovereignty. Canada still sends nearly 70 percent of its exports to the US. Turkey accounts for less than 0.3 percent of Canada's merchandise trade, worth 4.34 billion Canadian dollars (3.09 billion US dollars), though that trade has risen by nearly 50 percent in five years. Ottawa has signed more than 20 trade deals in the last year under Carney's plan to double non-US exports over the next decade.

Energy and defence

Energy ministers from the two countries will work together on liquefied natural gas, nuclear energy and critical minerals. Turkey is looking for investment and partners for its defence industry, its planned second and third nuclear power plants and its mining sector, and Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRealis is among the companies that have held talks on the nuclear plants. At the NATO leaders summit in July, the two leaders launched the free trade negotiations, and Turkey agreed to join Canada's Defence, Security and Resilience Bank as a founding member. Canada removed weapons export controls on Turkey in 2024, including controls on optical technology used in drones.

Turkey's crackdown on the opposition since 2024 has drawn criticism, and York University politics professor Anna Agathangelou said Carney must walk a fine line between opening economic doors and holding to Canada's role on equality. University of Waterloo professor Bessma Momani called the trip part of the geopolitical necessity of signaling to Americans that Canada is not sitting around waiting for them. Ankara says its judiciary is independent and denies that court cases are politically motivated.