Carney seals strategic partnership with Turkey to boost trade

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney met with President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey on Thursday, in the first bilateral visit by a Canadian leader, and the two NATO allies upgraded their relations to a "strategic partnership" as Ottawa seeks to expand trade partners and reduce reliance on the United States. 

The new partnership would focus on trade and investment, defence and security, energy, and people-to-people ties and would aim to create jobs and boost opportunities for Canadian and Turkish companies to do more business together.

At the ceremony, Canadian and Turkish ministers signed agreements on cooperation in energy, defence and air transport.

Carney is on a global trade blitz that he hopes will help buffer Canada from a trade war with the US, where President Donald Trump has applied sweeping tariffs and questioned the neighbouring country's sovereignty. 

Speaking next to Erdogan at his presidential palace in Ankara, Carney said the strategic partnership would have four pillars and include a three-year action plan. 

"We’ve planted the seeds of something new: a strategic partnership that will create new opportunities for our workers and businesses, and greater security and prosperity for both our peoples. With care and commitment, it will grow for generations to come," Carney said. 

NATO member Turkey is seeking new investment and collaboration for its burgeoning defence industry, new nuclear power plants and mining sector.

Praising Carney as a leader with "common-sense and acumen" on the world political stage, Erdogan said the two countries took a historic step on Thursday to deepen their cooperation.

 "Today, we have alleviated the long-standing Turkey-Canada disconnect. Now, we are starting a new era between Turkey and Canada," Erdogan said, adding that the two sides expected to raise their trade volume to $5 billion first and then to $10 billion, from the current $3 billion.

Negotiators from the NATO allies would convene next month in Ankara to kick off the first round of free trade talks, Carney said, adding that Export Development Canada and Turkey's Eximbank would sign a new deal to help companies from both countries cooperate on projects in third nations.

A Turkish diplomatic source said Canadian and Turkish energy ministers would work on areas such as nuclear energy, critical minerals, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Carney said he would meet with prominent Turkish business leaders and investors in Istanbul on Friday.

"GEOPOLITICAL NECESSITY"

Although trade between Canada and Turkey is tiny – Turkey accounted for less than 0.3% of Canada’s total merchandise trade or C$4.34 billion ($3.09 billion) – bilateral trade has risen by nearly 50% in the past five years.

“This trip is part of the geopolitical necessity of signaling to Americans that we are not sitting around waiting for them,” said Bessma Momani, professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. 

In the last year, Canada has signed more than 20 trade deals as part of Carney’s push to double non-US exports in the next decade. He flew to Beijing in January to reset fractured relations with China, striking a deal that slashed tariffs on electric vehicles and canola. 

Despite criticism that China is a security risk, given Canadian authorities previously found China had interfered in at least two federal elections, Carney has described China as a “more predictable” trading partner than the US.

However, Canada still sends nearly 70% of exports to the US.  

Turkey's crackdown on the opposition since 2024 and arrests targeting the LGBTQ+ community have drawn criticism. But Carney has focused less on rights than his predecessors.

“Carney will have to walk a very fine line in Turkey between opening new economic possibilities for Canada while trying to maintain Canada’s middle power role in fighting for equality,” said Anna Agathangelou, a professor of politics at York University. 

Ankara says the judiciary is independent, denying that investigations or court cases are politically motivated. 

At the NATO leaders' summit in July, Carney and Erdogan launched negotiations for a free-trade agreement, where Turkey also agreed to join Canada’s Defence, Security and Resilience Bank as a founding member.

Turkey has held talks with Canadian engineering firm AtkinsRealis <ATRL.TO> as well as South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corporation and China's State Power Investment Corporation about potentially building its planned second and third nuclear power plants. 

In 2024, Canada removed weapons-export controls on Turkey, including on optical technology used in drones that Turkey exports to dozens of nations. Canada mainly exports lentils, aircraft and electronics to Turkey, and imports medical devices, fishing vessels, aircraft engines and jewelry.

($1 = 1.4052 Canadian dollars)