Carney aims to sell Canada as reliable partner for trade in Southeast Asia

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks with members of the media before he boards a government plane in Ottawa on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Prime Minister Mark Carney is pitching Canada as a reliable partner for Southeast Asia, one that’s committed to rules-based trade at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is rewriting global trade norms.

He’s heading to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, known as ASEAN, seeking to drum up investment into Canada that will help achieve the nation-building plans that formed a central plank of the Liberals’ election platform.

In a speech previewing his government’s first budget, Carney said Wednesday that Canada has set a goal to double exports to markets outside the United States in the next decade, some $300 billion of new trade, as Canada tries to diversify its markets.

About 24 hours after Carney’s speech, Trump abruptly called off trade negotiations with Canada, citing his frustration with an Ontario government anti-tariff ad campaign running on American TV networks.

Trump is set to attend the ASEAN summit this week, but the Prime Minister’s Office said Friday that he and Carney do not have a meeting set.

The president told reporters at the White House Friday night that he had no plans to speak or meet with Carney, and called the Ontario ad “crooked” and “possibly AI.”

Wayne Farmer, the president of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council, said the Canadian government is engaging more with businesses in the region.

“I think ASEAN is very eager to do more with Canada, seeing us as a reliable, stable partner that they can plan to work with,” he said in an interview from Singapore on Wednesday.

Senior government officials, speaking to reporters on background on Thursday, said that for decades Canada viewed the 10-nation bloc largely as a development partner – but they’re now considered increasingly important commercial partners.

Carney is attending the ASEAN leaders’ summit as a guest of the chair, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The pair is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting on Monday to talk about green energy and critical minerals.

Carney is also set to meet with an oil and gas company and Malaysia’s central bank before visiting an aerospace facility during the two-day stop in the capital of Kuala Lumpur.

Farmer said the Carney government is sending positive signals through its major-projects legislation, with plans to fast-track approvals for significant projects that are deemed to be in the national interest.

“We’ve made things incredibly complicated in Canada to invest into, particularly in large infrastructure programs,” Farmer said.

The shift in tone and focus from this government is well-received, Farmer said, though “the proof is still in our ability to execute.”

ASEAN countries, which include some of the world’s fastest-growing economies and populations, are focused on improving their energy security and food security.

Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of the Asia Pacific Foundation, said Canada has the expertise to help develop research in areas like agriculture and the development of fortified grains and pulses.

“The world has changed and everybody’s trying to figure out how to diversify and how to reduce vulnerability and how to ensure their own economic resilience,” she said.

Malaysia is already a partner in the first phase of LNG Canada. LNG 2 is on the list of major projects for which the Liberal government has agreed to fast-track approvals.

Nuclear power is a priority for a number of countries, including Vietnam and Malaysia, and an area where Nadjibulla said Canada has both capacity and experience.

Kai Ostwald, the director of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, said Canada can also find common ground with ASEAN countries on its approach to security.

“Canada is very similar to most countries in Southeast Asia as not being large enough, rich enough, powerful enough to change geopolitics, but needing to navigate them in the larger collective where possible,” Ostwald said at a panel hosted by the Asia Pacific Foundation in September.

Canada and ASEAN are working toward a trade agreement that many expect to be signed in early 2026. The two sides are also working to finalize the next phase of a five-year action plan that is set to expire at the end of this year.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press