Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived Wednesday in Abu Dhabi to hunt extra ties with the United Arab Emirates in fields like synthetic intelligence — simply because the nation stands accused of serving to to gasoline a genocide in Sudan.
The journey comes as U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned Wednesday he plans to place larger consideration on serving to discover an finish to the brutal Sudan civil conflict after being urged to take motion by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who visited Washington this week.
Carney’s go to to the UAE, the primary by a sitting Canadian prime minister since 1983, isn’t anticipated to incorporate a press convention.
His Emirati hosts have barred media from the bilateral conferences that almost all international locations make open to visiting international press throughout high-level visits.
UAE Business Minister Sultan al-Jaber staged a grand entry for Carney, who disembarked from his airplane right into a brightly lit hallway flanked by uniformed troopers holding weapons.
The pair walked down the hallway to a big, rounded room the place they have been served tea by males in conventional clothes.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is welcomed by UAE Minister of Business and Superior Expertise and managing director of state-run Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Co. (ADNOC) Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, entrance proper, as he arrives in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick.
This week’s conferences are geared toward attracting funding from Emirati sovereign wealth funds and the personal sector to assist diversify Canada’s economic system in response to the U.S. commerce conflict.
The go to comes after years of negotiations on an funding safety settlement that would develop personal sector ties between the 2 international locations.
Whereas Carney’s airplane was en path to the area, Air Canada and the Emirates airline introduced an extension to 2032 of a code-share settlement signed three years in the past. A code-share settlement permits airways to market and promote seats on companion airways, permitting them to supply hyperlinks to locations exterior their networks.
The UAE has come below mounting political stress in current weeks as human rights teams, a United Nations panel and Washington have accused it of supporting a Sudanese militia endeavor surprising ethnic violence — one thing the UAE denies.
Civil conflict erupted between Sudan’s military and the Speedy Assist Forces in April 2023. The paramilitary RSF succeeded the Janjaweed militia that was behind the primary Darfur genocide between 2003 and 2005.
The combatants have blocked the entry of humanitarian support and the battle has created the world’s largest displacement disaster.
In January, the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned the RSF was committing a brand new genocide within the Darfur area. It sanctioned firms within the United Arab Emirates accused of offering arms to the militants with authorities help.
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Canada has not joined the U.S. in calling the disaster in Sudan a genocide.
In current months, RSF members have posted ugly social media movies exhibiting them attacking ethnic teams and staging mass shootings in hospital rooms. Yale’s Humanitarian Analysis Lab says satellite tv for pc photos present swimming pools of blood on the bottom, suggesting mass killings at a number of websites.
Rights teams say they imagine plane meant to hold humanitarian support from the UAE to Sudan are commonly delivering weapons as an alternative. They cite the variety of flights arriving within the area and the documented look of weaponry labelled with UAE cargo particulars, and level out that gold continues to be exported from Sudan to the UAE.
U.S. hints at extra motion in Sudan
Final week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned Washington is conscious {that a} particular nation had been supporting the RSF and mentioned the unnamed nation must cease. His assertion was broadly interpreted as a rebuke of the UAE.
On Wednesday, Trump mentioned he spoke intimately in regards to the civil conflict with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia throughout their White Home talks on Tuesday. The crown prince, Trump mentioned, urged him to make use of the facility and affect of the presidency to deliver an finish to the conflict.
“His majesty would love me to do one thing very highly effective having to do with Sudan,” Trump mentioned in remarks throughout a joint look with Prince Mohammed earlier than U.S. and Saudi enterprise leaders.
“I believed it was simply one thing that was loopy and uncontrolled,” Trump mentioned as he shared the stage with the crown prince. “However I simply see how essential that’s to you, and to lots of your pals within the room.”
Trump mentioned Prince Mohammed advised him that bringing an finish to the conflict “can be the best factor you are able to do, that may be larger than what you’ve already carried out.”
It was not clear Wednesday what actions the Trump administration could take, and whether or not it’ll publicly rebuke the UAE.
Nicholas Coghlan, a former Canadian ambassador to Sudan, mentioned he has been shocked to see the Carney authorities refuse to single out the UAE in public statements.
Coghlan argued it will not trigger a diplomatic row if Carney publicly known as on the UAE to respect an current UN arms embargo on the Darfur area.
“There appears to be an extreme pussyfooting round, making an attempt to not offend anyone,” he mentioned in an interview.
“The Emirates are a key participant on this. It’s merely simple — though they deny it — they’re the principal and main backer of the RSF, who’re the actually probably the most culpable of the 2 events.”
The UAE ambassador to Canada was not accessible for an interview, however his delegation wrote in a media assertion that it condemns violence by the RSF.
“We categorically reject any claims of offering any type of help to both warring social gathering because the onset of the civil conflict,” the embassy wrote.
Whereas a UN panel of specialists on Sudan has mentioned there are “credible” reviews of the UAE arming the RSF, the embassy argued the report “makes clear that there isn’t any substantiated proof that the UAE has offered any help to RSF, or has any involvement within the battle.”
The embassy additionally mentioned that it follows world requirements to trace gold shipments and keep away from fuelling battle — requirements which “have enabled us to earn the boldness of exporters from all over the world.”
Coghlan mentioned Canada will damage its popularity for defending the rules-based worldwide order if it doesn’t ask the UAE to respect the arms embargo and severely examine advocacy teams’ claims that Canadian arms are reaching Sudan by the UAE.
“Those that are watching Sudan will probably be watching the prime minister’s go to fastidiously,” he mentioned. “That is hardly a breach of diplomatic protocol to name on an ally to abide by a (UN) Safety Council decision.”
He mentioned the shortage of world stress has allowed the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces to create a cycle of violence which threatens to engulf neighbouring international locations.
“If the squeeze had actually been placed on the UAE a 12 months in the past — earlier than that they had ramped up all the arms gross sales — we might not have had the genocide that’s, I’d say, indisputably underway in Darfur,” Coghlan mentioned.
Carney is predicted to fulfill Thursday and Friday with senior authorities and enterprise officers in Abu Dhabi earlier than flying to South Africa for the G20 leaders’ summit this weekend.
World Affairs Canada’s on-line nation profile says the UAE has “a robust and numerous partnership” with Canada that touches on commerce, “strengthening regional and world safety” and poverty discount in different international locations, together with for ladies and ladies. The UAE was a main companion in Canada’s resettlement of Afghans after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
The rich oil-producing state has invested in inexperienced expertise and preventing local weather change by its large sovereign wealth funds, which World Affairs Canada says “have already deployed important capital in Canada.” Ottawa sees the potential for funding from the UAE in sectors like power, data expertise, infrastructure and well being care.
Canada exports arms, aerospace merchandise, motor autos and greens to the UAE, whereas greater than half of Canada’s imports from the Emirates contain iron, metal and aluminum, or merchandise produced from these metals.
Canadian exports to the UAE have shifted lately, with the Emirates taking in massive quantities of canola after China restricted imports of Canada’s crop between 2019 and 2021. Analysts imagine a lot of the canola reaching UAE lately was re-exported to China.
Each Canada and the UAE say they search to advance human rights globally, however every authorities interprets that idea in another way. The UAE is a predominantly Muslim nation that sees itself as pushing again towards oppressive types of Islam in different international locations.
—With further recordsdata from the Related Press and World Information
