Carney Heads to Turkey: Canada's Bold Pivot Beyond Washington

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to make history this month with a dedicated bilateral visit to Turkey, meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. According to four sources familiar with the plan, this marks the first standalone trip by a Canadian leader to the NATO ally in decades, a clear signal that Ottawa is aggressively diversifying its global partnerships.

For Israel, this development is a reminder that the Western alliance is shifting. Canada, long seen as a reliable U.S. satellite, is now charting its own course, and Turkey, a regional powerhouse with a booming defense industry, is eager to expand its footprint. The meeting, expected to focus on free-trade negotiations and potential energy and defense cooperation, comes after trade ministers from both nations agreed this week to accelerate talks.

Why is Carney visiting Turkey now?

The visit is the latest step in Carney's strategy to reduce Canada's overwhelming economic dependence on the United States. After trade talks with Washington collapsed in August, Carney has vowed to double Canada's non-U.S. trade within a decade. He has already reached out to China and India, and now Turkey is in his crosshairs.

At the NATO summit in July, Carney and Erdogan formally launched negotiations for a free-trade agreement. That same month, Turkey agreed to join Canada's Defense Security and Resilience Bank, a multilateral initiative of