Canada and Turkey form partnership, start free trade talks

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a “strategic partnership” between Canada and Turkey in Ankara on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, with Canadian negotiators set to return next month to open free trade talks.

Carney is making the first official bilateral visit by a Canadian prime minister to Turkey, The Canadian Press reported. The partnership comes with a three-year action plan and rests on four pillars: trade and investment, defence and security, energy, and ties between people, CBC News reported.

“Our objectives are clear: more trade and business between our countries to build more prosperity for our people,” Carney said in a statement delivered alongside Erdogan, calling Turkey an “exceptional partner.”

“No country builds strength alone,” Carney also said. “Our goal isn’t self-sufficiency. It is collective resilience.”

The first round of free trade negotiations is to take place in Ankara next month. The two countries are also signing an air transport agreement that could nearly double the number of flights between them, and a defence industry co-operation agreement meant to link Canadian and Turkish companies more closely.

Erdogan said he hopes two-way trade will roughly double to $10 billion, and said he plans to visit Canada with a business delegation, though he did not say when. “Now comes a new period, a new era for Turkey and Canada,” he said.

The partnership is also meant to open the way for investment in energy and critical minerals. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson is travelling with Carney, and CBC News reported the two governments are said to be planning a working group to study a possible bid by Canada’s Candu nuclear team to build one of Turkey’s planned nuclear power plants.

Neither leader took questions from reporters on Thursday. Carney is expected to speak with Canadian media on Friday in Istanbul.

The visit comes as human rights groups raise concerns about Turkey’s crackdown last month on dissent and civil society groups, including the dismantling of 2SLGBTQ+ and HIV advocacy organizations. Turkish authorities also seized the opposition broadcaster Halk TV earlier this month.

“We need to engage with the world as it is, not the way we wish it to be,” Hodgson said before the trip. “Where we have differences of opinion, we discuss those in private.”

The trip is part of Carney’s effort to diversify Canada’s trade away from the United States. Turkey is a NATO ally with a growing defence industry, and the alliance has stepped up its presence in the Black Sea this week. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also due in Toronto and Ottawa in December.

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With files from The Canadian Press and CBC News.