Türkiye and Canada sign 3 documents on defense, air transport and energy

Türkiye and Canada signed three documents covering defense, air transport and energy. The signing followed one-on-one and delegation-level talks between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.

The documents are the Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Sector Partnerships, the Air Transport Agreement and the Joint Declaration on Cooperation in the Field of Energy. The defense memorandum was signed by Haluk Görgün, head of the Presidency of Defense Industries, and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand. It aims to expand partnerships between the defense industry organizations of the two countries.

Strategic partnership and trade target

Speaking at a joint press conference, Erdoğan said the decision to raise relations to the level of strategic partnership was one of the most concrete outcomes of the visit.

With the contribution of our strategic partnership decision, we aim to launch new projects in many areas such as energy, trade, transport and the defense industry in the coming period.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Erdoğan said the aim is to raise trade volume first to $5 billion and then to $10 billion. It was decided that free trade agreement negotiations would begin before the end of the year. The updated Air Transport Agreement aims to roughly double direct flights between the two countries, with weekly passenger flights expected to rise from 12 to 21.

Defense and energy

Erdoğan said the two countries are in close contact on the defense industry and nuclear energy. He said they expect the Defense, Security and Resilience Bank, being established under Canadian leadership to finance allies' defense industries, to support bilateral defense industry cooperation. In energy, he noted a broad area of cooperation ranging from mining to LNG and from critical minerals to nuclear energy.