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In Saudi Arabia, Carney hails new 'phase' as bad blood with Canada vanishes
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA — As the military band of the Saudi royal household belted out a rendition of Canada’s national anthem, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was thrilled.
“They have not played ‘O Canada’ for 26 years… And I was very proud,” Carney said of his whirlwind visit to Saudi Arabia this week, which marked the first time a Canadian prime minister had set foot in the country in over a quarter-century, and comes after recent years of strained relations. He said he complimented Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and de facto leader, on the “absolutely flawless” performance.
“I hope that now that they’ve learned it… they will put it into practice multiple times,” Carney said.
Carney spent a packed day on Thursday meeting with top Saudi government and business officials before having lunch with the crown prince at the royal palace. There was a signing ceremony for several new deals at the Saudi Arabia-Canada Investment Forum, where the prime minister was joined by cabinet members François-Philippe Champagne, Anita Anand and David McGuinty.
Carney is leaving the country on Friday with Canadian and Saudi businesses having signed 13 new commercial agreements across a variety of sectors, including education, critical minerals, mining and artificial intelligence, but also a commitment that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund will attend the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto in September.
Canada, for its part, will participate in Expo 2030 in Riyadh, which Carney said will showcase “the best” of Canada.
“We barely scratched the potential of the relationship,” said Carney in public remarks before the signing ceremony. “Today is part of the next phase of building out.”
Saudi Arabia spared no effort in making the Canadian delegation feel welcome. From the moment the Royal Canadian Air Force landed in Jeddah, the prime minister was greeted by top Saudi officials, both countries’ ambassadors, and rows of Saudi armed forces. On the runway and outside of the airport, Canadian and Saudi flags were flapping side by side.
But not everything was as friendly: media access was severely restricted during Thursday’s events, with most reporters only having access to Carney during his closing press conference in the evening, indicating the two countries’ approaches to a free press.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the goal of the trip was twofold: to increase the bilateral relationship between Canada and Saudi Arabia, but also to stand in solidarity with partners in the Gulf region as they face “unjustified attacks by Iran.” One of the targets hit by Tehran in the Strait of Hormuz this week was a Saudi crude tanker. Carney on Wednesday had said Iran acted “irresponsibly” in violating a ceasefire agreement.
“The feeling on the ground here in Saudi Arabia is very much one about seeing Canada as being a supportive partner in these very difficult times,” Anand told reporters.
Canadian business executives are ecstatic about the rapprochement between both countries.
Canadian mining executive Jeffrey Steiner, chair and CEO of the Canada-Saudi Business Council, says he frequently goes back and forth to Saudi Arabia — he’s visited 31 times — and was excited to have the prime minister visit the country at last.
“There’s sometimes silver linings when there’s disagreements between countries,” Steiner said, referring to the 2018 diplomatic spat which saw Saudi Arabia cut ties with Canada after then foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland criticized Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
In 2023, as relations began to thaw, Saudi Arabia appointed Amal Yahya Almoallmi as ambassador to Canada, and Canada appointed Jean-Philippe Linteau to serve as its ambassador in Saudi Arabia. Steiner called them both “fantastic ambassadors” to each other’s countries and gave them credit for unfreezing the relationship from that moment on.
“Sometimes, in misunderstandings and disconnection, all kinds of good things can happen. That’s now the past. That’s the first step in the reconciliation,” he said.
Even though the meetings on Thursday mostly focused on trade and investment, Anand said she also discussed “Canadian values” and human rights with her Saudi counterpart. There were questions ahead of the trip whether the issue would come up .
“We need to be at the table to have these difficult conversations,” she said.
Carney would not say if he discussed human rights during his private meeting with Bin Salman, but he said that “lecturing countries from afar is an ineffective strategy.”
“It’s satisfying, but it’s ineffective,” he said. “Engagement can be effective.”
Carney said he had raised a Canadian consular case with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the margins of the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this week, and because they were meeting face to face, he said that case “was addressed favourably.”
“If I sat in Ottawa and pointed out all the things that we might not agree with what Turkey has done or is doing or might do, I wouldn’t have had that conversation. I wouldn’t have had that impact. That’s a small example, but it is an example of a broader matter,” he said.
Asked about Saudi dissident blogger Raif Badawi, who was previously imprisoned by the regime and is banned from leaving the country to join his family, who are now Canadian citizens, Carney said it is a difficult and complex situation. “We can try and improve the situation gradually,” he said.
National Post calevesque@postmedia.com
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