ISTANBUL – October 23, 2026 – Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Turkey for a three-day visit. He met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday in Ankara. The two launched the first round of negotiations for a Canada-Türkiye free-trade agreement and signed an expanded air-transport agreement. On Friday Carney is meeting Turkish business leaders in Istanbul. He told reporters that AtkinsRéalis’s bid to supply Candu reactors for two planned Turkish nuclear plants now has “good chances” of succeeding. Energy is one of the pillars of the new strategic partnership.
The visit is the first bilateral trip to Turkey by a Canadian prime minister. Relations had been cooler after a Canadian arms embargo. The strategic partnership and the free-trade talks are the formal products of the trip so far. The Candu comment is the commercial one. Turkey is looking for reactors for two plants. AtkinsRéalis is bidding. Carney has said the bid is competitive. He has not said the contract is won. The free-trade negotiations have just started. No text has been released. The air-transport agreement is the one document that has been signed.
Carney has also said there is “no merit” to American claims that Canadians might be interfering in U.S. politics ahead of the midterms. That comment came in response to a U.S. Embassy statement. It is separate from the Turkey file. The Turkey file is the one that produced the strategic partnership, the free-trade launch, the air agreement, and the Candu comment. The rest is whether the reactor bid advances and whether the free-trade talks produce a text before the next election cycle in either country.
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