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

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 9, 2026 /CNW/ - 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 new 13 new commercial agreements and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) worth over $1 billion – spanning health technology, mining, infrastructure, and defence. This will enable:

• Canadian firms supporting mining, critical minerals, and clean energy projects in Saudi Arabia.
• Canadian infrastructure companies helping to deliver Vision 2030 projects, including roads and rail lines.
• Canadian health technology companies deploying Canadian-made capabilities from patient monitoring and clinical decision-support technologies to surgical intelligence platforms.
• Experts from Canadian colleges training the next generation of the Saudi workforce, including construction, skilled trades, medicine, and technology.

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

• Energy, through a MOU to attract investment in major projects, expand trade, and strengthen cooperation on LNG, renewable energy, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage.
• Artificial intelligence, through a MOU to advance collaboration in AI development, deployment, and commercialisation.
• Defence and security, by committing to finalise a MOU on defence cooperation.
  • Canada will also establish a resident Defence Attaché presence in Riyadh to increase the frequency and depth of bilateral engagements and increase exports from Canada's defence sector.

Progress was made on two additional commercial partnerships as well:

• Cohere, a leading Canadian sovereign AI company and Saudi Arabia's HUMAIN, today announced a strategic AI compute collaboration to provide dedicated AI infrastructure for the next generation of frontier AI models. This partnership will enable the development of AI solutions and special-purpose sovereign AI models.
  • As part of this partnership, HUMAIN will designate at least 50 megawatts of dedicated AI compute capacity to support Cohere's next-generation foundation models.
• BlackBerry and Aramco Digital have commenced discussions to explore opportunities for collaboration to advance sovereign secure communications and next-generation industrial technology in Saudi Arabia.

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

• Lead a delegation of Canada's pension funds to Saudi Arabia to explore long-term investment opportunities and strengthen partnerships in sectors such as energy and AI.
• Participate in Expo 2030, a six-month World Expo bringing together countries to showcase innovation, trade, and investment opportunities – to be held in Riyadh from October 1, 2030, to March 31, 2031.
• Have a national pavilion at the World Defence Show in Riyadh in January 2028.
• Advance a strategic partnership between Canadian and Saudi Arabian educational institutions to support the professional development of Saudi Arabian early childhood and English language educators.

The Prime Minister and the Crown Prince announced that they will conclude negotiations for a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) by the end of 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.

Quotes
"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

Quick facts

• The Prime Minister and the Crown Prince welcomed the signing of a MOU to establish a foreign minister-level Canada-Saudi Arabia Coordination Council that will guide and deepen cooperation across several key priorities.
• The visit followed the Prime Minister's participation in the 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, Türkiye. Over the course of the trip, the Prime Minister:
  • Announced the largest defence procurement in Canadian history – selecting Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) as the preferred supplier to begin negotiations to purchase up to twelve state-of-the-art submarines.
  • Strengthened Canada's contributions to the NATO Alliance and forged new partnerships with Allies.
  • Welcomed the launch of negotiations toward a Canada-Türkiye comprehensive free trade agreement.
• Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, valued at over an estimated $1 trillion, is a key driver of Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the economy away from oil and gas.
• During his visit, the Prime Minister emphasised Canada's commitment to working with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf partners to advance regional stability.
  • The two sides strongly condemned Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on July 7, 2026. The two countries underscored that such actions heighten regional tensions, undermine confidence-building efforts, and jeopardise ongoing diplomatic negotiations and agreements aimed at promoting regional stability and security.
  • Alongside our partners and allies, Canada stands ready to support the Multinational Military Maritime Mission in four potential areas of assistance: maritime logistics, cyber support, demining expertise, and satellite imagery, when conditions permit.
• The Minister of International Trade, Maninder Sidhu, visited Saudi Arabia in January 2026 with a senior Canadian business delegation where he welcomed approximately $600 million in commercial partnership agreements, and promoted Canadian trade and investment opportunities – including in the clean technology and energy, information and communication technology, AI, and infrastructure sectors.
• Canada looks forward to welcoming a Saudi Arabia trade mission to advance progress on bilateral trade, investment, and commercial partnerships.

Related product

• Prime Minister Carney meets with Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman

Associated links

• Prime Minister Carney to attend the NATO Summit in Türkiye and visit Saudi Arabia to deepen trade, technology, and defence partnerships
• Canada-Saudi Arabia relations 

This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister's Office

PMO Media Relations: [email protected]