Prime Minister Carney speaks on Canada\u2019s defence spending and also discusses his recent \u2018long discussion\u2019 with Trump \u2018on a range of issues.\u2019 <\/p>\n
OTTAWA \u2014 Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is meeting with her Turkish counterpart in Ottawa today, ahead of the NATO summit next month in Turkiye\u2019s capital Ankara.<\/p>\n
Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan is visiting Toronto and Ottawa after pitching a strategic partnership with Canada.<\/p>\n
Turkiye is Canada\u2019s military ally by virtue of its NATO membership and Fidan has echoed the Canadian government\u2019s argument that Europeans should complement the military alliance without duplicating the work of NATO.<\/p>\n
The two countries are not particularly close and geopolitical issues have strained ties.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney has sought to build stronger relations with numerous countries other than the United States. Anand visited Ankara in March and said Canada is focused on four pillars of its relationship with Turkiye: energy exports, economic opportunities and trade, defence and security, and people-to-people ties.<\/p>\n
During that visit, Fidan said in Turkish that relations with Canada should be elevated \u201cto a strategic level\u201d to pursue mutual interests and global peace.<\/p>\n
Anand told The Canadian Press in March that both countries were sorting out how to frame their ties.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SZBFFSJ4IC6CRDNSGB2LQEWUA4.jpg\")
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan holds a news conference following his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova’s Mansion in Moscow, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Sergei Ilnitsky\/Pool Photo via AP) Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan holds a news conference following his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at Zinaida Morozova’s Mansion in Moscow, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Sergei Ilnitsky\/Pool Photo via AP) <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate nomenclature that is used to describe the relationship is part of what we are discussing, but there\u2019s no question that we share a vision for an elevated bilateral relationship,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Global Affairs Canada\u2019s online profile of Turkiye calls it \u201can emerging market of broad interest to Canada,\u201d with opportunities for Canadian companies in sectors such as agriculture, life sciences, mining and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Turkiye has helped Ottawa evacuate Canadians from various Middle East crises and bring home activists detained by Israel for joining flotillas that sought to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The bilateral relationship has experienced tensions, especially over Canada\u2019s large Armenian diaspora.<\/p>\n
Canada has long held that Turkiye committed a genocide against Armenians a century ago, a claim that Ankara has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n
Ottawa also suspended arms sales to Turkiye seven years ago \u2014 and tightened those rules two years later, before dropping them \u2014 because of reports that Turkiye was diverting Canadian military components to Azerbaijan for use against Armenia and ethnic Armenians.<\/p>\n
Turkiye has criticized Canada for granting refugee status to political dissidents that Ankara sees as insurrectionists. The Committee to Protect Journalists says Turkiye is among the top jailers of journalists under the country\u2019s terrorism and criminal codes.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Carney speaks on Canada\u2019s defence spending and also discusses his recent \u2018long discussion\u2019 with Trump \u2018on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,24803,47,44,714],"class_list":["post-762272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-defence","tag-national","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}