Turkey and Canada launched a strategic partnership on Thursday, pledging to forge closer ties in energy and defence as global instability prompts nations around the world to reinforce their militaries and energy supply chains.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara as part of a two-day trip to Turkey, the first official visit by a Canadian premier to the country.
The two Nato members signed agreements on defence co-operation and energy, and agreed to increase flights to boost trade and travel, Mr Erdogan and Mr Carney said in a press conference.
Buffeted by energy price shocks from the US-Iran war, Turkey has had to revise its inflation targets and is keen to secure energy and fuel imports, including from Canada, as well as supplies of critical raw minerals.
“From mining to LNG [liquefied natural gas], from critical minerals to nuclear energy, a broad area of co-operation exists,” Mr Erdogan said. The strategic partnership was not merely a symbolic move that would “remain on paper”, he added.
After mounting tension with the US had prompted Canada to develop other relationships, the new partnership with Turkey is backed up by a three-year action plan focusing on trade and investment, defence and security, energy and “people-to-people ties”, Mr Carney said.
On Friday he will meet Turkish business leaders in Istanbul before free-trade agreement talks start next month. The two countries aim to increase trade volume from its current level of $3 billion to $10 billion, Mr Erdogan said, without providing a time frame.
“Our objectives are clear: more trade between businesses to build more prosperity between our peoples,” Mr Carney said.
Turkey is aiming to cement its role as a key “middle-power” player of the sort that Canada wants to forge closer relationships with, according to Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat.
“On a more strategic level, this visit emphasises Turkey's foreign policy orientation, which is to diversify its traditional foreign policy by way of strengthening its ties with what Carney has called this universe of middle powers,” Mr Ulgen, who now runs the Edam think tank in Istanbul, told The National. “Within that universe, Turkey aspires to play a major role,”
As Mr Carney arrived in Turkey, human rights groups encouraged him to raise concerns about what they describe as increasing authoritarianism in the country. Amnesty International called on Mr Carney to raise concerns with Mr Erdogan about curbs on democratic freedom, following recent arrests of activists, journalists and opposition politicians.
“Prime Minister Carney can and must demand the protection of those most at risk,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section.