Prime Minister Mark Carney is meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday, the first bilateral visit to Turkey by a Canadian leader, as Ottawa pushes to deepen trade ties beyond the United States.
The two leaders are expected to sign a declaration deepening cooperation in four areas including defence and energy, according to Reuters, with a Turkish diplomatic source saying bilateral ties will be upgraded to a strategic partnership.
Carney’s office says the visit aims to position Canada as a key partner in trade and investment. He is expected to meet prominent Turkish business leaders, with concrete steps on trade, investments, defence industry, security and energy all on the table.
A small trade relationship with big ambitions
Trade between the two countries is tiny: Turkey accounts for less than 0.3 percent of Canada’s merchandise trade, about 4.34 billion Canadian dollars. But bilateral trade has risen by nearly 50 percent in five years, and Ankara is seeking investment for its defence industry, new nuclear plants and mining sector.
Bessma Momani, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo, told Reuters the trip was about signalling: it is part of the geopolitical necessity of showing Americans that Canada is not sitting around waiting for them.
Part of a wider trade blitz
The Turkey stop follows a week in which Carney has raced to line up alternatives to the United States, where President Donald Trump has applied sweeping tariffs and questioned Canadian sovereignty. Yesterday’s preview of the visit set out the defence and energy stakes, and Carney has also committed with India’s prime minister to an early trade pact conclusion.
The full agenda, set out in this Reuters report, shows a prime minister determined to give Canada options, whatever Washington does next.
