Mexico trip kicks off globe-hopping travel season for PM Carney

Prime Minister Mark Carney waves as he boards a government plane to head home from Riga, Latvia on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is off to Mexico City this week — the first of many official trips during what diplomats like to call “summit season.”

Here’s a look at where Carney will be racking up the kilometres in flights this fall.

Sept. 18 to 19: Mexico City

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told a Sept. 12 press conference that Carney will visit Mexico City Thursday and spend most of the day at the National Palace for various meetings. The two leaders are also expected to take part in a joint press conference.

She said in Spanish that Carney will have “some meetings” on Friday before flying home that day. Carney’s office has yet to officially announce the trip.

The visit comes as Ottawa seeks more trade with Mexico in response to American tariff uncertainty, and as both countries brace for the renegotiation of the continental trade deal linking all three economies.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has accused the Liberals of failing to secure a bilateral trade deal with Mexico. The government says it has never sought a two-way deal with Mexico that excludes the U.S.

Asked whether she and Carney would be discussing the looming renegotiation of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade pact, Sheinbaum noted that Mexico and Canada engage in a lot of two-way trade and investment.

Sheinbaum said she expects to work with Carney on “various themes,” including “strengthening trade through sea and ports.”

The state of the bilateral relationship has waxed and waned. Mexico took notice of some heated language coming out of Canada after U.S. President Donald Trump called out both countries as sources of fentanyl trafficking last year.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said last November that “to compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I have ever heard,” while then-prime minister Justin Trudeau voiced concerns about Chinese investments in Mexican supply chains.

Sheinbaum shot back days later, stating that her country “must be respected, especially by its trading partners” and that Canada “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.”

Sept. 22: United Nations in New York City

Carney is expected to attend the United Nations General Assembly during its high-level week — the annual period when heads of government fly into New York to address their peers from the green marble podium.

While Carney’s office has not confirmed his travel dates, he is widely expected to attend an event on Sept. 22 in New York where France will officially recognize Palestinian statehood.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also announced on Sept. 11 that he and Carney will co-host an event at the UN focused on the plight of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. Ottawa is co-leading efforts to reunite families.

Carney’s office says that event is set for Sept. 23.

Carney is likely to use his UN visit to outline his vision for Canada on the world stage — as a country working to defend the global rules-based order established in the wake of the Second World War. That order is under unprecedented pressure now, with China and Russia linking hands with North Korea as Trump’s administration alienates longtime allies.

Oct. 26 to 28: ASEAN summit in Malaysia

Canada has been ramping up its engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a loose collective of 10 fast-growing economies with a hunger for Canadian commodities.

Canada and the ASEAN bloc have said they want to arrive at a free trade deal before the end of this year. Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president Vina Nadjibulla said Monday that mid-2026 would be a more realistic timeline.

A deal with the ASEAN bloc could help push forward Ottawa’s plan to sell small nuclear reactors to Indonesia to supply power on remote islands that face the same energy shortages as some parts of Canada.

It could also help to build on trade facilitated by Canada’s massive Filipino diaspora. The Philippines has been using Canadian satellite technology to detect vessels engaged in illegal fishing or territorial breaches in the South China Sea.

Analysts say simply being present at the ASEAN summit and holding bilateral talks with leaders demonstrates that Canada wants to be a reliable partner — something the federal government describes as a departure from its intermittent engagement with the region in recent decades.

Carney confirmed in a July 3 call with his Malaysian counterpart that he will attend the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia also expects Trump to attend.

It’s not yet clear whether Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the ASEAN summit, or any other major summits this fall. It’s also not known whether Carney intends to request a meeting with Xi.

While Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has urged Carney to speak with Xi to get Beijing to drop its canola tariffs, Ottawa is taking a cautious approach to deepening engagement with China and has avoided rushing into talks.

Oct. 31: APEC forum in South Korea

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is a group of 21 economies on both sides of the Pacific that work together to break down barriers to trade. It includes China, Russia, Peru and Australia.

The “economies” represented at APEC include the special administrative region of Hong Kong — which falls under Chinese control — and Taiwan, which many states do not recognize as a separate country.

Visiting leaders tend to use the annual summit as a backdrop for bilateral discussions, rather than issuing joint policy statements. Some of the exchanges among the leaders at APEC later help to inform technical work by trade experts.

The summit is being held in Gyeongju, near the southeast corner of South Korea.

Just 120 kilometres away sits the Hanwha shipyard, which Carney has pledged to visit. Hanwha is one of two companies Ottawa is considering as a supplier for a major submarine purchase; the other is in Germany.

Carney might return to Canada between his visits to Malaysia and South Korea, or he might make time to visit another key partner like Japan, or a target market for Canada in Southeast Asia.

Nov. 22-23: G20 summit in South Africa

Carney said in June he is “looking forward to” visiting Johannesburg for the summit of the world’s leading economies.

Trump, who said on Sept. 5 he won’t attend the summit, has previously cited overblown claims about anti-white discrimination in South Africa.

Canada played a major role in convincing its allies to help end South Africa’s apartheid system and later helped the country draft its constitution and design its major institutions.

But Ottawa and Pretoria have been far apart on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. South Africa has continued to support Moscow’s economy, citing the Soviet Union’s role in supporting the Global South.

South Africa also pushed Ottawa to recognize Palestinian statehood for more than a year before Carney announced his intention to do so.

It’s not known whether Carney will visit another African country while he’s on the continent. His government has had little to say about the Africa strategy Ottawa quietly released in the dying days of Trudeau’s time in power, and has committed no new funding to the plan.

The strategy calls for Canada to expand its focus beyond development in order to reap some of the benefits of Africa’s projected demographic and economic boom.

David Hornsby, a Carleton University professor specializing in South Africa, said Carney should use the visit to announce partnerships in trade diversification and technology.

“There’s a great synergy and opportunity for us to collaborate on core challenges that affect us all,” he said, adding that he has heard of “a lot of paddling under the water” on how Canada can forge closer ties with South Africa.

Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported on June 19 that South Africa had invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the summit — despite the fact that, as a member of the International Criminal Court, South Africa has an obligation to arrest Putin for war crimes.

The outlet noted that Putin was most likely to send a delegate in his place, as he has done for each summit since 2021.

An unconfirmed trip: COP30 in Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio da Silva’s office said in June that Carney would be coming to the Amazon for the COP30 environmental summit.

A Portuguese-language notice issued on June 11 says that the president invited Carney to the summit because of his past career experience in climate finance. “The prime minister praised Brazil’s leadership and confirmed his presence in Belém,” says the notice.

Carney’s office has not yet said whether he will attend the COP30 leaders’ summit, which runs Nov. 6 and 7.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press