Carney hails new trade, defence pact with Turkey

Mark Carney's making history in Turkey, the first bilateral visit by a Canadian prime minister, and it was a full-court press for a leader eager to expand global trade. Canada is building deeper partnerships with reliable partners that create new opportunities for us both. And in Turkey, we have an exceptional partner. With that, a flurry of deals, including increased cooperation on energy and defense, more direct flights between the two countries and a possible free trade agreement with negotiators set to start formal talks next month. A dramatic change from the Turkey-Canada relationship in recent years. Back in 2020, allegations that Turkey provided Canadian drone tech to Azerbaijan during its war with Armenia prompted Ottawa to temporarily suspend arms exports to Ankara. And recently, Turkey, under President Recep Erdogan, has been criticized by human rights proponents for a crackdown on LGBTQ groups and the government takeover of an opposition-aligned TV outlet. On Thursday, Carney mentioned none of that, while Erdogan declared, Any disconnect between Canada and Turkey is now behind them. With its key locations straddling Europe and Asia and NATO's second-largest standing army, Turkey is difficult to ignore, says this observer. The calculus appears to be on the part of the government that if Canada were to choose to diversify only with democracies, the ceiling for success would be low, simply for the mathematical reason that there are not that many democracies. In a statement, Canada's foreign affairs minister, Anita Anand, says she raised the importance of respecting human rights when she met her Turkish counterpart.