Prime Minister Mark Carney departs for Turkey on Wednesday for a three-day visit, the first dedicated bilateral trip to the country by a Canadian prime minister, according to CBC News.
The trip includes meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara and business leaders in Istanbul. Carney is accompanied by Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Energy Minister Tim Hodgeson.
Canada and Turkey do about $4.3 billion in trade annually. Carney and Erdoğan formally announced the launch of free trade negotiations during the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7.
The visit follows a period of strained relations after Canada froze and then cancelled military export permits in 2021 over allegations that Ankara redirected Canadian-manufactured drone parts to Azerbaijani forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. That policy has since been eased.
Three issues are likely to dominate the agenda: negotiating a free trade agreement, expanding co-operation in energy and strategic industries, and developing a closer defence-industrial relationship.
On the energy side, Canada is pitching its Candu nuclear reactor technology. In June, Canadian and Turkish trade ministers explicitly identified potential co-operation involving Candu reactors. Federal officials said they were “not in a position to say anything about any specific outcomes at this point.”
On defence, Canada’s Secretary of State for Defence Procurement, Stephen Fuhr, visited Turkey in May 2026 and described the country as a trusted partner. In a recent interview with Defense News, Fuhr identified ammunition production, drones and counter-drone systems as key areas for potential co-operation. He suggested future collaboration could involve co-development programmes rather than off-the-shelf purchases, particularly in sectors where Canada seeks faster capability growth.
“Individually we’re just not big enough, but collectively we are,” Fuhr said.
The visit comes a month after Turkish authorities launched a nationwide crackdown on dissent and civil society, including the systematic dismantling of LGBTQ+ and HIV-advocacy organizations. Senior federal officials, speaking on background, said the trip reflects the prime minister’s foreign policy approach.
“Canada is meeting this moment with values based realism. We are pursuing an approach that is both principled and pragmatic,” one official said at a technical briefing.
Officials said Canada continues to apply its export-control framework, reviewing each potential export on a case-by-case basis for risks of contributing to violations of international humanitarian law or unauthorized transfers.
Sources: CBC Politics