OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney leaves Thursday for a 10-day go to to India, Australia and Japan — his first worldwide journey since his headline-making speech in Davos that known as for center powers to band collectively.
It can give Carney an opportunity to place that speech into motion as he visits three “powerhouses of the area,” Asia Pacific Basis vice-president Vina Nadjibulla mentioned in an interview.
“The Indo-Pacific is the place the centre of gravity for geopolitics and financial progress … is more and more converging,” she mentioned.
In his speech to the World Financial Discussion board in January, Carney urged center powers to work collectively in opposition to “American hegemony” and the efforts of nice powers to coerce and subjugate smaller international locations.
“In Asia, Canada is having a second. Prime Minister Carney’s speech actually was fairly an essential improvement in how Asia sees Canada,” Nadjibulla mentioned.
College of Waterloo political science professor David Welch mentioned the journey is a “clear comply with” on the speech, since India, Japan and Australia are all essential center powers. He mentioned Canada’s “inventory has risen dramatically globally because the Davos speech.”
But it surely’s nonetheless not clear how a lot Carney will be capable of accomplish with the journey, past symbolism.
“Whether or not he comes again with offers that do considerably improve Canada’s financial relationship or safety relationship with any of those international locations, that continues to be to be seen,” Welch mentioned.
On the G20 summit in South Africa final yr, Carney launched a partnership on rising applied sciences with India and Australia.
“We don’t have quite a lot of particulars however I’m hoping that we’ll see some bulletins linked to the trilateral in the course of the prime minister’s go to,” Nadjibulla mentioned, noting the settlement got here after India hosted a world summit on AI.
Carney will land in Mumbai on Feb. 27, then head to New Delhi on March 1, the place he’ll meet Indian President Narendra Modi. He’ll then fly to Sydney March 3 earlier than stopping in Canberra on March 5 after which Tokyo on March 6.
Whereas Canada has relationship with each Australia and Japan, Carney has got down to reset Canada’s relations with India after a diplomatic disaster that erupted in 2023.
In September 2023, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau advised the Home of Commons Canada was pursuing “credible allegations of a possible hyperlink” between India and the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A yr later, the RCMP accused New Delhi of enjoying a job in a community of violence linked to home homicides and acts of extortion.
Each international locations recalled their excessive commissioners and diplomatic ties had been suspended for months.
Then Carney invited Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta final June and the 2 international locations have since reappointed excessive commissioners.
“We each determined that that is too essential a relationship to let go, for it to meander the way in which it was meandering,” India’s Excessive Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik mentioned in an interview final week.
The 2 international locations have relaunched commerce negotiations which have stopped and began since 2010. Patnaik mentioned he’s optimistic in regards to the probabilities of reaching a deal in simply 12 months of negotiations as a result of each international locations need stability in a turbulent world.
Each Canada and India want to diversify their commerce hyperlinks away from dependence on america. Sushant Singh, a lecturer on South Asian research at Yale College, mentioned Carney and Modi are being pushed by the identical motive.
“Very clearly there’s a want to shut the earlier chapter or no matter occurred with the earlier authorities … and to start out afresh,” he mentioned.
After India, Carney heads to Australia, the place Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been in energy since 2022. Carney will deal with Australia’s Parliament in the course of the journey, authorities officers mentioned in a background briefing.
Each Canada and Australia are Commonwealth international locations and companions within the 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, together with the U.S., U.Ok. and New Zealand.
Nadjibulla mentioned there may be quite a lot of goodwill and belief between the 2 international locations, together with robust funding ties, however the “defence and safety relationship is one which completely must be strengthened.”
Canada and Australia signed an settlement final yr to deploy an over-the-horizon radar system.
Welch mentioned Canada’s relationship with Australia is sweet however the alternatives for interplay are restricted.
“They’re a commodity exporter. We’re a commodity exporter. They’re an agricultural powerhouse. We’re an agricultural powerhouse,” he mentioned. “Simply attempting to determine what we might promote them that we don’t promote them now and vice versa is a little bit of a trick.”
Carney’s final cease shall be in Japan, additionally an in depth ally. His go to comes after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the nation’s first feminine prime minister, was re-elected in a landslide earlier this month.
“In some methods, the journey is lengthy overdue given how vital Japan is as a accomplice for us within the area,” Nadjibulla mentioned. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau visited in 2023.
A side-trip to Japan was thought of when Carney travelled to Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea final fall, however the timing didn’t work out.
Canada launched an Indo-Pacific technique three years in the past. Nadjibulla mentioned that technique has led to a deeper relationship with Japan.
She described it as a “full spectrum partnership” that features robust financial relations, business funding, partnerships on power and demanding minerals, “alignment round values and deep people-to-people ties as effectively.”
However Nadjibulla famous that as a result of the connection is in an excellent place, “it’s straightforward to miss it and to not give it the form of consideration that it deserves.”
Welch mentioned Canada and Japan have grown nearer as world volatility and uncertainty have elevated.
“Canada and Japan up to now few years simply seized on one another as secure, like-minded international locations which might be dedicated to a rules-based worldwide order and dedicated to a liberal worldwide order,” he mentioned.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 26, 2026.
Anja Karadeglija and Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press