Prime Minister Mark Carney concluded the first-ever visit by a sitting Canadian prime minister to Qatar on Jan. 18, 2026, securing a strategic partnership with the Amir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Qatar committed to major investments in Canadian projects, and both countries pledged to conclude an investment treaty by summer.
Billions in promised investment
The centrepiece of the Doha stop was a commitment from Qatar to make “significant strategic investments” in Canadian nation-building projects. Ottawa says the money will speed up major projects and support Canada’s clean energy, health, artificial intelligence and defence industries.
The two leaders issued a joint statement promising accelerated two-way investment and collaboration across AI, quantum computing, aerospace, defence technologies, advanced manufacturing, agriculture and agri-food. Carney told reporters that a delegation from the Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, would visit Canada after Ramadan to explore opportunities, and that Canadian pension fund leaders would make a return trip to Doha.
“Qatar is an effective, expansive, and increasing diplomatic force in the world today,” Carney said. “Now we’re elevating our relationship — with an ambitious, new strategic partnership across trade, commerce, investment, AI, and defence.”
Unblocking a treaty stalled since 2018
After years of stalled negotiations, the leaders agreed to conclude a Canada–Qatar Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement by this summer. Talks on the FIPA began in 2018 and had gone nowhere; a concluded treaty would give Canadian businesses legal certainty when operating in Qatar and make it easier to attract Qatari capital to Canada. Qatar’s economy is worth nearly $290 billion, and its investment in Canada is already growing by about 20 per cent a year.
The two countries also agreed to create a joint commission on economic, commercial and technical co-operation, to begin negotiating a double-taxation agreement, and to deepen work on information technology. Canada will expand air services between the two countries under their air transport agreement, open a defence attaché office in Doha, and exchange security best practices with Qatar as Canada prepares to co-host the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
Carney also met Qatar’s public health minister and Qatari business leaders, and invited both the Amir and Qatar’s prime minister to visit Canada in the coming year.
Small trade numbers, large ambitions
The partnership is, for now, bigger in promise than in trade volume. Two-way trade between Canada and Qatar exceeds $325 million, with Quebec accounting for nearly half of Canadian exports, driven by aerospace and advanced manufacturing. Nearly 10,000 Canadians live and work in Qatar. In November 2025, Canada removed the visa requirement for Qatari citizens and added electronic travel authorization eligibility to ease business and leisure travel.
The visit was one leg of a January swing through China and the Gulf in which the Carney government has pursued new markets and capital in response to U.S. tariffs — a diversification push Ottawa describes as positioning Canada as a strong, reliable partner not reliant on a single country.
Qatar is the Gulf’s third-largest economy and carries outsized diplomatic weight, including its mediation roles in Ukraine and the Middle East — one reason Carney pointed to the Qataris’ help evacuating more than 200 Canadians from Afghanistan in 2021 as a foundation of the relationship. The test of the Doha announcements will be whether the FIPA is actually concluded by summer and whether Qatari capital commitments turn into named projects.
