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Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Friday, stressed safeguarding human rights inside Canada while also diversifying trade outside the country.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney is defending deepening ties with Turkey despite a recent raid of LGBTQ groups in the country, saying his job is to safeguard human rights inside Canada but also find new export markets abroad to strengthen Canadian sovereignty.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Friday, Mr. Carney offered more insight into his brand of foreign policy – which he calls “values-based realism” – that he has explained means doing business with countries even when Canada disagrees with how they conduct themselves. “Engagement is not approval,” he said.
He said not many countries can match Canada’s domestic commitment to human rights. “There are very few countries in this world that have the standards of Canada, the rights of Canada, the conviction of Canada, the constant reinforcement of those rights, so that all Canadians can live their lives as they choose,” he said.
Mr. Carney struck a strategic partnership with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week during the first bilateral visit to the country by a Canadian Prime Minister, a deal that lays out plans for co-operation and trade in energy and defence, among other sectors.
Canada, Turkey announce strategic partnership to deepen energy, defence and trade ties
Canada wants to sell AtkinsRéalis’s CANDU nuclear reactors to Turkey, which plans to add 20 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050.
The Prime Minister told reporters on Friday the chances of Canada making a CANDU sale have gone up since he took office.
“If you would have asked us a year ago how we would have pegged the chances, that would have been very low. Now there are good chances,” he said.
AtkinsRéalis chief executive Ian Edwards said on Friday in a statement that his company will be conducting a feasibility study on “a potential new build of CANDU reactors” at Sinop, a port city in Turkey. “We welcome this opportunity to deepen energy co-operation between Canada and Türkiye while bringing Canadian nuclear technology and expertise to a growing international market,” he said.
Carney says seeking deeper bilateral ties with Turkey does not mean Canada endorses a perceived crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in the nation.
The Canadian Press
The new Canadian partnership with Turkey provides legitimacy to Mr. Erdogan, who critics say is responsible for Turkey’s democracy backsliding into an autocracy. The U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House scores Turkey as 32/100 on its civil liberties index, or “not free,” saying the Turkish President and his party “have become increasingly authoritarian in recent years, consolidating significant power through constitutional changes and by imprisoning opponents and critics.”
In recent months Turkey has taken over a pro-opposition media outlet, raided LGBTQ groups and convicted a stand-up comic of insulting the country’s President.
Mr. Carney, whose government is driving to reduce reliance on the increasingly protectionist United States, said he is committed to defending LGBTQ rights in Canada.
“Our first and foremost job is protecting, not just protecting LGBTQI rights and two-spirited rights in Canada, but promoting those rights and ensuring that all Canadians can live their full selves in Canada. So first and foremost, that’s our responsibility,” he said.
But protecting and safeguarding Canadians’ rights at home means strengthening the country’s independence and autonomy, the Prime Minister added.
“Part of the way we discharge that is to be a truly sovereign nation. Part of the way we become a truly sovereign nation and reinforce our sovereignty is to have a broad range of partnerships around the world,” he said.
Turkey, a country of 87 million that sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, is also important because of its location.
“Turkey is a formal partner of Canada in NATO and one of the most important geostrategic countries, not just in this region but in this world. So we need to engage, and we do engage.”
Asked if he was legitimizing Mr. Erdogan and his actions by meeting with the Turkish leader, Mr. Carney rejected this, saying, “No.”
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He said the degree of engagement Canada undertakes with countries does depend on the values of those nations.
But, he said, it’s important for Canada to build and sustain deeper relations with myriad countries given disorder around the globe.
He said if Canada doesn’t engage, it can’t “be in the room” to raise Canadian perspectives on international challenges. The Prime Minister cited geopolitical matters in regions near Turkey.
“Literally today, there are discussions about the war in Iraq, the war in Ukraine, the situation in Syria, the broader issues in the Middle East” and the prospect of “continued stabilization” in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.
Carney is in Istanbul for meetings with Turkish business leaders to showcase why Canada is becoming a more attractive market to do business.
The Canadian Press
Roland Paris, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa who once served as foreign policy adviser to former prime minister Justin Trudeau, said Canadian leaders have always had to balance questions of human rights, democracy and the rule of law with commercial goals, adding they have each struck that balance in a different way.
“I commend Mr. Carney for how much energy he’s putting into diversifying Canada’s trade, but he’s not getting the balance right,” Prof. Paris said.
He said the Prime Minister “is decidedly on the side of pursuing commercial goals while downplaying other questions of human rights and democracy and the rule of law.”
Prof. Paris said the Carney visit comes at a difficult time for human rights campaigners in Turkey who are “by necessity very brave and some of them are in jail and have been incarcerated in the last few weeks and I think it’s incumbent on any Canadian prime minister to do more.”
Mr. Carney said his government raised the issue of LGBTQ rights during his Turkey visit but declined to elaborate. “I find those conversations are more effective when they’re direct and open and not then reported out in detail.”
The Prime Minister held private meetings with Turkish companies in Istanbul on Friday. His office said these included Sabanci Holding, an industrial and financial conglomerate, as well as Calik Holding, a company that operates in the energy, mining, construction, textile and financial sectors; Baykar, known for its military drones; and arms manufacturer Aselsan.