Carney leaves for Dublin, Manila and Phnom Penh summits

Prime Minister Mark Carney leaves Ottawa on Wednesday for a trip to Ireland and Asia, heading to the airport shortly after the Remembrance Day ceremony, Global News reported.

His first stop is the European Political Community summit in Dublin on Nov. 12. For the second time, Canada will be the only non-European country at the table. Carney attended the group’s last meeting in Armenia in May. The summits have been held roughly every six months since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and they are informal talks on politics, security and infrastructure. Carney and European Union leaders have floated Canada becoming an “associate member” of the EU, a title they have not yet defined.

From Dublin, Carney travels to Manila, where the Philippines is hosting Canada as a guest at the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Canada is set to finalize negotiations on two trade deals during the visit, one with the 11-country ASEAN bloc and one bilateral agreement with the Philippines, and Carney could sign one of them there. He has a meeting on Saturday with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and is to address ASEAN leaders on Sunday. Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and Gender Minister Rechie Valdez, who is of Filipino origin, will travel with him.

He is then expected at the Francophonie summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, set for Nov. 14 to 16, where he is to meet leaders from Africa and other regions. Canada will host the next Francophonie summit in 2028 in the Ottawa area, and Carney is expected to use the gathering to advance Canada’s strategic autonomy and protect the role of French in the growing digital economy. Members will also choose their next leader in Cambodia.

Vina Nadjibulla, co-founder of the Centre for Strategic Statecraft, said the trip is a chance to build on agreements Canada has signed around the world. “We’re now entering a much more consequential phase of actually implementing and delivering on all of these agreements, and sustaining the momentum,” she said.

Stéphanie Martel, a Queen’s University professor who studies Southeast Asia, said Carney has focused on trade and maritime defence but less on local concerns such as climate resilience. Whether Canada is seen as a serious, comprehensive contributor to the region “is still up for debate,” she said.

The trip comes as Carney prepares to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Shenzhen later this month, where he has said he will raise foreign interference. It also follows the signing of the Canada-EU pact that stops short of free movement of labour, and comes while Ottawa and Washington have restarted trade talks. Our guide to the tariffs now in effect tracks what Canadians are paying.

Dates are as reported by Global News, which Canada News Media has not independently confirmed with the Prime Minister’s Office.

If you find reporting like this useful, consider supporting Canada News Media, an independent Canadian newsroom with no corporate parent.