Carney lands in Manila seeking trade deals with ASEAN

Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Manila early Saturday local time for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, where he hopes to finalize a trade deal with the Philippines and another with the wider ASEAN bloc, The Canadian Press reported.

Carney was scheduled to meet Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. later in the day. The summit brings together 20 heads of government, including guests from outside the region such as U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Ottawa says trade between Canada and ASEAN countries totalled $52.3 billion last year, about a fifth more than the year before. The bloc of nearly 700 million people is central to Carney’s goal of doubling exports to countries other than the United States by 2035.

Bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and the Philippines totalled $3.4 billion in 2025. Canada exported mineral ores, meat, cereals, fertilizers and aircraft, and imported cooking oils, leather and rubber products. The two countries have been in talks on a trade agreement since 2015, and Carney and Marcos restarted those efforts a year ago. This summer, Carney signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Philippines that called for more labour mobility and climate resilience projects.

The stop in Manila follows Carney’s meetings with European leaders in Ireland, where he pressed them to ratify the Canada-EU trade deal. He left Ottawa on a trip that also includes a summit in Phnom Penh, as we reported when he departed. Earlier this month, we also reported that he planned to raise foreign interference with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC meetings.

Vina Nadjibulla, co-founder of the Centre for Strategic Statecraft, said the Asian summits are a chance for Carney to remind Canadians of the importance of the region. “So much of his diplomacy over the last few months has been focused on Europe, understandably so,” she said. “But we also need to remind everyone that Canada is a Pacific nation.”

Stephanie Martel, a Queen’s University professor who studies ASEAN, said Carney has taken a narrower approach than his predecessor Justin Trudeau, focusing on trade and military collaboration such as naval exercises in the Taiwan Strait and help for countries like the Philippines in detecting Chinese vessels used in territorial disputes. She said ASEAN countries tend to view security more broadly, including climate change and economic stability, and warned that the focus on strategic sectors could stall the wider relationship.

Canada has also appointed a defence attaché for the Indo-Pacific region, one of the highest-ranking officers in such a post.

Source: The Canadian Press.

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