Canada's Carney visits Saudi Arabia as the prime minister seeks to expand ties with kingdom

TORONTO — Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday — the first visit to the kingdom by a Canadian leader in 26 years — as he seeks to expand his country's economic ties beyond its heavy reliance on the United States.

Carney is to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the kingdom's de facto ruler — on Thursday, and he will also address the Saudi Arabia-Canada Investment Forum and attend a signing ceremony.

The trip underscores Ottawa’s effort to diversify trade and attract investment as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement highlight Canada’s dependence on the U.S., its largest trading partner.

For its part, Saudi Arabia has sought to attract foreign investment as Prince Mohammed pursues an ambitious plan to diversify the kingdom’s economy beyond oil.

Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, said “Trump’s erratic trade and foreign policies" have forced Carney to reach out "to others in a new and evolving world order.”

Canada and Saudi Arabia restored full diplomatic ties in 2023, ending a yearslong rift sparked by Canada’s criticism of the kingdom’s human rights record.

The rift erupted in 2018, when Saudi Arabia expelled Canada’s ambassador and recalled its own after Canada’s Foreign Ministry called for the release of jailed women’s rights activists. Riyadh froze new trade and investment, sold some Canadian assets and ordered thousands of Saudi students in Canada to study elsewhere. The activists have since been released.

Also in 2018, Prince Mohammed's reputation was tarnished by the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. A U.S. intelligence assessment declassified in 2021 concluded the crown prince had likely approved the operation.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said the timing of Carney’s visit matters not just because of his push to “diversify trade and help attract new foreign investments to Canada” but also “because of the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East” and the war in Iran.

“It seems increasingly clear that, for Mark Carney, trade and security are much more pressing concerns than human rights,” Béland said.

But Wiseman stressed that “Carney says he is taking the world as it is.”

"It doesn’t mean looking beyond human rights; it means being realistic about what preaching about it to authoritarian leaders can accomplish,” he said.