Hello, everyone.
This has been an historic and highly productive visit to Doha. I want to thank His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the warm hospitality, the depth of our conversations, and the progress we have made.
This is the first-ever visit by a sitting Canadian Prime Minister to Qatar. It marks a new era for our relationship – one in which we move from close friends to strategic partners.
Canada and Qatar are natural partners and enjoy a growing friendship. We share similar values, complementary strengths, and mutual ambitions.
This alignment is a foundation for the new strategic partnership that we are building – a partnership that will deliver greater stability, predictability, and prosperity, for both Canadians and Qataris.
In an increasingly dangerous and divided world, Qatar is an effective, expansive, and important force for peace.
Our relationship has been forged over many years and by profound acts of friendship.
Qatar helped evacuate more than 200 Canadians from Afghanistan in 2021, as the Taliban took power.
During the pandemic, Qatar Airways played a vital role repatriating over 15,000 Canadians from over 10 countries.
Qatar has provided enormous humanitarian aid to Gaza and opened the channels for Canada and other countries to do so.
They have successfully reunited children with their families, separated by Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine.
And they are providing the Sudanese people with food, shelter, and medical supplies, amid the ongoing devastating humanitarian crisis.
Canada and the world are grateful to Qatar’s leadership and partnership.
I know we will continue to work together in these missions and in others, in the shared pursuit of peace, stability, and security.
As we all know, the global landscape is rapidly changing, leaving businesses and workers in a state of uncertainty.
These changes are also undermining the effectiveness of multilateral institutions, on which middle powers like Canada and Qatar have historically relied.
In response, Canada is focused on what we can control: securing new trade and investment partnerships, so we are not reliant on a single country, but stronger and more resilient to global shocks.
We are doubling our non-U.S. exports in the next decade – an increase of about $300 billion.
We are also catalysing $1 trillion in new investments in Canada – in housing, major projects, defence technologies, artificial intelligence and quantum, critical minerals, and clean energy.
We have announced a dozen new economic and security partnerships across four continents. We are attracting unprecedented levels of investment.
My colleagues and I arrived here yesterday from Beijing, where we had just secured a new trade agreement that, at first blush, will help unlock more than $7 billion in export markets for Canadian farmers, ranchers, fish harvesters, and agri-food workers across our country.
This is the beginning of a new strategic partnership between Canada and China. A partnership that deepens collaboration in areas such as energy, clean technology, agri-food, and financial services. A partnership that will increase trade and catalyse new investment.
Tomorrow, I will go to Davos, Switzerland, where I will meet with leaders in commerce, technology, and global governance.
Our partnerships differ in focus, scope, and scale, but they all have the same goal: to create more stability, security, and prosperity for Canada and our partners.
Qatar is deeply connected to the world, economically diverse, and a leader on the international stage.
Nearly 10,000 Canadians live and work in Qatar.
Two-way trade is growing rapidly, with Québec accounting for nearly half of Canadian exports – driven by aerospace and advanced manufacturing.
Today, Qatar’s investment in Canada is growing by nearly 20% a year.
And now, we are elevating our relationship and its level of alignment – one where we move from friends to close strategic partners.
To launch this new chapter in our relationship, I am pleased to announce that Qatar has committed to making significant strategic investments in Canada’s nation-building projects.
This capital will help get projects built faster and supercharge our energy industries, while helping to create thousands of high-paying careers for Canadians.
We are also announcing an ambitious new partnership. We are deepening our ties across trade, investment, defence, and AI.
After years of stalled negotiations, we’re prioritising a new Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which we will finalise by this summer.
This agreement will enable Canadian businesses to more easily expand their operations in, and attract investment from, this dynamic $290 billion economy.
Following Ramadan, representatives from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund will visit Canada to explore new investment opportunities.
And in the coming months, a delegation of Canada’s leading pension funds will visit here to do the same.
We are establishing a new Commission on Economic, Commercial, and Technical Cooperation to facilitate and strengthen business ties.
We will identify co-investment opportunities in artificial intelligence, aerospace, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and information technologies.
We’re launching negotiations on a new double-taxation agreement to make it easier for Canadians to work and invest in Qatar and vice versa.
We’re deepening our defence relationship, with joint training, expertise sharing, industrial partnerships, and military exchanges.
Canada will also establish a Defence Attaché here in Doha to secure further opportunities to partner in defence, joining Canadian Forces in this country.
When the people of different countries are familiar with each other’s cultures and perspectives, they are enriched and they trust each other more. They also want to do more together to build together.
To that end, Canada and Qatar are strengthening our people-to-people ties and our cultural ties.
This month, Qatar begins its Year of Culture with Canada – building lasting relationships through cultural, educational, business, and creative exchanges.
Canada, to further these efforts, will expand our Air Transport Agreement with Qatar to increase direct flights to this country – to lead to more tourism and business between our nations.
Finally, in the spirit of cultural exchange, I have extended an invitation to His Highness to visit Canada, as we kick off in our first-ever World Cup match this June, in Vancouver.
On that note, I want to thank Qatar for their offer to share security expertise that they gained hosting the World Cup. I had the privilege to cheer on Team Canada here – I can report that my heart rate, according to my watch, hit a new record when Alphonso Davies put it in the net for Canada.
Our two countries have much in common: we’re both resource-based economies and we have complementary strengths in technology, security, and defence.
We’ve long been friends. We’ve often worked together to pursue peace, security and stability in the world. And now, through shared ambition, we are working to diversify our trade, commerce, and investment, to help build clean energy, health AI, and defence capabilities, and to forge a new strategic partnership.
In this more uncertain and dangerous world, we’ve chosen to create greater stability, security, and prosperity together.
Thank you very much.