Prime Minister Carney deepens partnership with Saudi Arabia across trade, education, technology, and critical minerals

The global landscape is rapidly changing, creating uncertainty for economies, businesses, and workers. In response, Canada is focused on what we can control: building our strength at home, diversifying our trade partnerships, and cultivating a dense web of new connections. That means deepening ties with the largest, most ambitious economies around the world.

Saudi Arabia is Canada’s second-largest trading partner in the Middle East, supporting tens of thousands of Canadian jobs, and with rapidly growing ties across education, energy, defence, critical minerals, and advanced technologies. With a $1.8 trillion economy and an ambitious economic transformation agenda under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia offers significant opportunities for Canadian workers, businesses, and expertise.

To deepen this partnership, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, travelled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – the first visit to the country by a Canadian Prime Minister in 26 years. During the visit, the Prime Minister met with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman. Together they issued a joint statement with key commitments to deepen cooperation across trade, technology, mining and natural resources, energy, health, education, people-to-people ties, and defence.

In Jeddah, Canada and Saudi Arabia signed 13 new commercial agreements and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) worth over $1 billion – spanning health technology, mining, infrastructure, and defence. This will enable:

To unlock bilateral investment and create thousands of jobs for both countries, Canada and Saudi Arabia agreed to deepen collaboration on:

Progress was made on two additional commercial partnerships as well:

To strengthen the Canada-Saudi Arabia partnership in the coming months, Prime Minister Carney announced that Canada will:

The Prime Minister and the Crown Prince announced that they will conclude negotiations for a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) by early 2027. This will enable Canadian businesses to more easily expand their operations in and attract investment from Saudi Arabia. Canada and Saudi Arabia also launched negotiations for a new double-taxation agreement to make it easier for Canadians to work and invest in Saudi Arabia and vice versa.

Canada and Saudi Arabia are complementary economies with shared ambitions to expand trade, attract investment, and diversify their economies. Deepening the partnership will support Canada’s efforts to grow non-U.S. exports, attract investment, and strengthen collaboration in strategic sectors – creating new opportunities for Canadian businesses and workers.

“Canada and Saudi Arabia have both embarked on ambitious new missions to transform their economies. To that end, we are harnessing each other’s strengths across minerals and mining, technology, energy, and commerce. Canada has what the world wants. We are cultivating a dense web of new connections to diversify our trade, create new opportunities for our workers and businesses, and deliver greater security and prosperity for all Canadians.”

The Rt. Hon. Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada

“As Canada builds a stronger, more resilient economy, deepening our partnership with Saudi Arabia is an important step in advancing trade diversification, strengthening energy cooperation, and expanding people-to-people ties. This visit marks a new chapter in the Canada-Saudi Arabia relationship, building on a shared commitment to economic growth as well as solidarity in the face of Iranian aggression over the past months.”

The Hon. Anita Anand, Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada