Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to Turkey this month to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This visit is considered the first bilateral visit by a Canadian leader to Turkey. During this meeting, the two sides may discuss the free trade negotiations that were launched on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara in July.
Development of Trade and Defense Cooperation
Carney and Erdogan may also discuss potential cooperation in the fields of energy and defense. The trade ministers of Canada and Turkey recently agreed to accelerate negotiations ahead of the leaders' meeting. This visit reflects Carney's efforts to reduce Canada's economic dependence on the United States, its largest trading partner, following a failure in trade negotiations in August.
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Carney aims to double Canada's non-American trade over the next decade and is working to establish relations with various countries, including China and India, with which he has had tense relations in the past. He has focused less on human rights than his predecessors to emphasize efforts to strengthen the economy against U.S. tariffs.
Turkey's Challenges and New Markets
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey who has been in office for 23 years, is seeking new markets and partnerships for his country's growing defense industry. While Erdogan claims that an independent judiciary is investigating the opposition, some human rights groups have accused him of suppressing dissent.
Turkey, as an emerging market economy, is seeking partnerships and investments in energy, infrastructure, and mining. At the NATO summit in July, Carney and Erdogan officially launched negotiations for a free trade agreement. Additionally, the trade ministers of the two countries met in June and considered plans to expand cooperation in renewable and nuclear energy.
In recent years, Canada has lifted its restrictions on arms exports to Turkey, which has helped improve bilateral relations. However, Turkey still accounts for less than 0.3 percent of Canada's total trade.
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