Carney to visit Turkey this month in first bilateral trip by Canadian PM

October 2, 2026 at 09:16 PM2 min

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to visit Turkey this month to meet President Tayyip Erdogan, four sources said. The visit would be the first dedicated bilateral trip to Turkey by a Canadian leader. Carney and Erdogan could discuss free-trade talks launched in July, as well as potential energy and defense cooperation.

Key Facts

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to visit Turkey this month to meet President Tayyip Erdogan, four sources with knowledge of the visit said.
The visit would be the first dedicated bilateral visit to Turkey by a Canadian leader.
Carney and Erdogan could discuss free-trade talks launched on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara in July, as well as potential energy and defense cooperation.
Canadian and Turkish trade ministers agreed this week to accelerate the talks ahead of the leaders' meeting, two sources said.
Carney has vowed to double Canada's non-US trade over the next decade.

Visit Details

The sources did not share the dates or agenda of the visit planned later this month. Carney's office and Erdogan's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. No Canadian prime minister is known to have made a standalone bilateral visit to Turkey in recent decades, though they have met Erdogan and other Turkish leaders on the sidelines of multilateral gatherings, including NATO and G20 summits hosted by Turkey.

Trade and Economic Context

At the NATO leaders' summit in July, Carney and Erdogan formally launched negotiations for a free-trade agreement. That month, Turkey agreed to join Canada's Defence Security and Resilience Bank as one of 10 founding member nations of Carney's multilateral 'middle powers' bank. Carney has rushed to establish ties with a host of countries, including China and India, with which it had past strains. Turkey, an emerging market economy whose biggest trading partner is the European Union, also seeks partnerships and investment in energy, infrastructure and mining.

Human Rights Dimension

Erdogan, Turkey's leader of 23 years, has been criticized by rights groups for a crackdown on the political opposition since 2024. Western powers have grown relatively silent on Turkey's rights record as it has become a leading defense-industrial power and a bulwark against Russian aggression. Since last month, a wave of arrests and restrictions has targeted Turkey's LGBTQ+ community in a probe the government says aims to protect children and family values, but which has drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and some European officials.