Canada and Turkey launch a “Strategic Partnership” with a defence-industry memorandum, years after Ottawa’s arms-export curbs

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan launched in Ankara on Thursday, October 22 a Canada-Turkey Strategic Partnership, with a three-year action plan resting on four pillars: trade, investment and innovation; energy and climate; defence and security; and intergovernmental dialogue together with people-to-people ties. It was the first bilateral visit to Turkey by a Canadian prime minister. It ended on Friday in Istanbul with meetings with Turkish business people.

On defence, the leaders’ joint statement welcomes a memorandum on defence-sector cooperation between Canada’s foreign ministry (Global Affairs Canada) and Turkey’s Defence Industries Presidency (SSB). The memorandum is meant to connect Canadian and Turkish companies so that they can co-produce. It builds on the Declaration of Intent on Defence Cooperation that the two countries signed in July, on the margins of the NATO summit in Ankara, covering dialogue between armed forces, operational support and industrial cooperation. Under the intergovernmental dialogue the two countries establish an annual Strategic Dialogue and continue political-military consultations, as well as those on counter-terrorism.

Ottawa does not hide what it sees in Ankara. Carney’s office describes Turkey as a country with “the second-largest standing armed forces in NATO and one of the most important and innovative defence industries in the world”, while Carney spoke of cooperation that will “link our defence industries”. Erdoğan, for his part, said that he expects the Defence, Security and Resilience (DSR) Bank, being set up under Canadian leadership to finance allied defence industries, to support the two countries’ cooperation in the defence industry.

From export curbs to cooperation

The rapprochement comes a few years after a period in which Canada had put the brakes on defence exports to Turkey. In October 2019, after Turkey’s incursion into northeastern Syria, it suspended new export permits. In April 2021 Ottawa cancelled permits that had been suspended in autumn 2020, because there was “credible evidence that Canadian technology exported to Turkey was used in Nagorno-Karabakh”, which was inconsistent with Ankara’s assurances on end use.

The policy of “presumption of denial” for military items, in force since April 2020, was lifted in January 2024. Since then, under Notice 1108 to exporters, applications are examined case by case, also on the basis of the Arms Trade Treaty criteria. Where the end user is the Turkish armed forces or another state body, a statement from the Turkish government is required on whether the material will be re-exported or transferred to a non-NATO country, with the exception of Ukraine. Ottawa reserves the right to suspend or cancel permits if credible evidence of misuse emerges.

Trade, energy and flights

The first round of free-trade negotiations is set for November 30 to December 4, 2026 in Ankara. Bilateral trade in goods reached C$4.3 billion in 2025, with Canadian exports of C$1.1 billion and imports from Turkey of C$3.2 billion. Erdoğan set a target of raising the volume from about $3 billion to $5 billion and then to $10 billion. Export Development Canada and Türk Eximbank signed a memorandum on joint projects in third countries, and Canada will send a trade mission to Turkey in 2027.

In energy, the two countries’ ministers signed a joint statement on cooperation in LNG, civil nuclear power, renewables and critical minerals. An expanded air agreement raises weekly passenger flights from 12 to up to 21 per country, with no limit on cargo flights. According to the Canadian readout of the talks, the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and Black Sea security were discussed. Carney was accompanied by Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, and Erdoğan was invited to visit Canada. Meanwhile Ankara is raising its defence spending, with an 86% increase in the Defence Ministry’s 2027 budget.