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 gas a genocide in Sudan.
The journey comes as U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned Wednesday he plans to place better consideration on serving to discover an finish to the brutal Sudan civil battle 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 nations make open to visiting overseas 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 aimed toward attracting funding from Emirati sovereign wealth funds and the non-public sector to assist diversify Canada’s financial system in response to the U.S. commerce battle.
The go to comes after years of negotiations on an funding safety settlement that would develop non-public sector ties between the 2 nations.
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 accomplice airways, permitting them to supply hyperlinks to locations outdoors their networks.
The UAE has come beneath mounting political stress in current weeks as human rights teams, a United Nations panel and Washington have accused it of supporting a Sudanese militia enterprise surprising ethnic violence — one thing the UAE denies.
Civil battle erupted between Sudan’s military and the Fast Help 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 assist 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 corporations 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 photographs present swimming pools of blood on the bottom, suggesting mass killings at a number of websites.
Rights teams say they consider plane meant to hold humanitarian assist from the UAE to Sudan are frequently delivering weapons as a substitute. 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 extensively interpreted as a rebuke of the UAE.
On Wednesday, Trump mentioned he spoke intimately in regards to the civil battle 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 ability and affect of the presidency to carry an finish to the battle.
“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 assumed 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 necessary that’s to you, and to a variety of your pals within the room.”
Trump mentioned Prince Mohammed informed him that bringing an finish to the battle “could be the best factor you are able to do, that may be better than what you’ve already achieved.”
It was not clear Wednesday what actions the Trump administration might take, and whether or not it should 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 could not trigger a diplomatic row if Carney publicly referred to as on the UAE to respect an present UN arms embargo on the Darfur area.
“There appears to be an extreme pussyfooting round, attempting 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 definitely 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 occasion for the reason that onset of the civil battle,” the embassy wrote.
Whereas a UN panel of consultants on Sudan has mentioned there are “credible” experiences of the UAE arming the RSF, the embassy argued the report “makes clear that there isn’t a substantiated proof that the UAE has supplied any help to RSF, or has any involvement within the battle.”
The embassy additionally mentioned that it follows international requirements to trace gold shipments and keep away from fuelling battle — requirements which “have enabled us to earn the arrogance of exporters from all over the world.”
Coghlan mentioned Canada will harm its popularity for defending the rules-based worldwide order if it doesn’t ask the UAE to respect the arms embargo and significantly examine advocacy teams’ claims that Canadian arms are reaching Sudan by means of the UAE.
“Those that are watching Sudan will probably be watching the prime minister’s go to rigorously,” 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 worldwide stress has allowed the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces to create a cycle of violence which threatens to engulf neighbouring nations.
“If the squeeze had actually been placed on the UAE a 12 months in the past — earlier than they’d ramped up the entire arms gross sales — we’d not have had the genocide that’s, I’d say, indisputably underway in Darfur,” Coghlan mentioned.
Carney is predicted to satisfy 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 international safety” and poverty discount in different nations, together with for ladies and ladies. The UAE was a major accomplice in Canada’s resettlement of Afghans after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.
The rich oil-producing state has invested in inexperienced know-how and combating local weather change by means of 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 vitality, info know-how, infrastructure and well being care.
Canada exports arms, aerospace merchandise, motor automobiles and greens to the UAE, whereas greater than half of Canada’s imports from the Emirates contain iron, metal and aluminum, or merchandise created from these metals.
Canadian exports to the UAE have shifted lately, with the Emirates taking in giant quantities of canola after China restricted imports of Canada’s crop between 2019 and 2021. Analysts consider 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 otherwise. The UAE is a predominantly Muslim nation that sees itself as pushing again towards oppressive types of Islam in different nations.
—With extra recordsdata from the Related Press and World Information
