OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney will attend the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey next week before he jets off to Saudi Arabia — his first official visits to those countries.

NATO members are expected to gather on July 7 and 8 in Ankara to celebrate an alliance-wide increase in defence spending, following years of U.S. pressure for alliance members to hike their military and national security budgets.

But NATO nations remain under pressure to show up in Ankara with credible plans to meet the latest alliance defence spending benchmark of five per cent of GDP by 2035.

Ahead of the summit, Carney has been campaigning for allies to support the establishment of a multinational defence bank to finance defence sector growth.

In Saudi Arabia, Carney is scheduled to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to talk about expanding trade and investment.

Carney’s office says this will be the first visit to Saudi Arabia by a Canadian prime minister in 26 years, and the first to Turkey in more than a decade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2028.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press