Canada and Turkiye Launch Strategic Partnership With Three-Year Action Plan
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the launch of a Canada-Turkiye Strategic Partnership, backed by a three-year action plan. The announcement came on October 22, 2026, during Carney's two-day visit to Turkiye, which Al Jazeera reported is the first bilateral visit to Turkiye by a Canadian prime minister.
The partnership rests on four pillars: trade and investment, defence and security, energy, and people-to-people ties, meaning contacts between citizens of the two countries. The two governments plan to expand bilateral trade and investment in priority sectors including energy supply, defence production, aerospace and artificial intelligence.
On trade, Carney and Erdogan agreed to work toward the successful conclusion of a Canada-Turkiye Free Trade Agreement, a deal that would reduce tariffs and other barriers to commerce between the two countries. Negotiations for the agreement were launched at the NATO leaders' summit in July 2026, which Turkiye hosted. The first round of trade talks is due to take place next month in Ankara. A separate new agreement on defence industry cooperation is intended to better connect Canadian and Turkish companies, according to CBC News.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, the two leaders agreed, through their foreign ministers, to oversee implementation of the three-year action plan. Reuters reported before the visit that discussions were expected to cover nuclear power and liquefied natural gas (LNG), a fuel that is cooled into liquid for shipping. Carney was scheduled to meet Erdogan and other officials before travelling to Istanbul for talks with Turkish business groups.
The announcement builds on recent contact between the two leaders. Carney and Erdogan spoke by phone on April 15, 2026, when Carney emphasised progress toward deeper commercial, defence and energy ties. They met in July, when Carney thanked Erdogan for Turkiye's hosting of the NATO summit and set out the alliance's key priorities. Later that month, the two governments issued a joint statement on launching free trade negotiations.
