Sharan Kaur is a former head of crisis communications for Saudi Aramco.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s historic visit to Saudi Arabia marks the first time a Canadian prime minister has set foot in the country in over a quarter of a century.
For too long, Canada’s foreign policy has been trapped in a cycle of self-righteousness, pretending that we can only do business with nations that mirror our exact Western moral standard. That era of performance-based diplomacy is over, and it is about time.
The five-year diplomatic deep freeze that began in 2018 served nobody. It did not advance human rights, it did not protect activists, and it certainly did not help Canadian interests. Instead, it sidelined Canada from the undisputed heavyweight of regional power and stability in the Middle East.
As someone who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, I have seen both sides of this coin. I know firsthand that the kingdom we lecture from the West is vastly different from the reality unfolding on the ground.
To ignore Saudi Arabia’s current trajectory is to completely misunderstand the shift in global gravity. Under the banner of Vision 2030, the kingdom is orchestrating one of the most ambitious economic diversification projects in modern history, intentionally pivoting away from oil dependency. At the heart of this transformation is its Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth behemoth managing over $900 billion in assets. The PIF isn’t just investing capital; it is actively building entirely new domestic and global industries from scratch, anchoring mega-projects in clean energy, advanced tourism, entertainment, and Artificial Intelligence.
Modernizing at a ‘breathless pace’
Saudi Arabia is a young country, with more than 60 per cent of its population under the age of 35. Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the nation is modernizing at an unprecedented, breathless pace.
To ignore the structural evolution of women’s rights in the kingdom over the last decade is to willfully blind ourselves to progress. Women are entering the workforce in record numbers, driving, launching businesses, and holding senior corporate and government roles. Beyond the boardroom, the shift in daily life is profound. As a woman who has lived there, I can tell you that the Western perception of safety in the kingdom is entirely outdated. I regularly felt safer walking the streets of Riyadh at midnight than I do walking through downtown Toronto. Is the system perfect? No. But transformation on this scale takes time, and the momentum is real.
Effective diplomacy is about engagement, not endorsement. It means having the maturity to sit at the table with the region’s central anchor of power. Of course we have a tense history. Of course there will be profound disagreements, and we should absolutely continue to raise the issues we believe need to be addressed.
But there is a vast gulf between standing up for your values and lecturing another nation like a lesser partner. True diplomacy requires us to stop treating evolving nations with a sense of moral superiority.
In a volatile global economy, Canada cannot afford to isolate itself behind a wall of virtue signalling. The $1 billion in agreements signed during this trip, spanning critical minerals and technology, prove that we have complementary economic ambitions. Saudi Arabia needs specialized expertise in infrastructure, mining, and innovation, and Canadian businesses are uniquely positioned to provide it.
If we want to have any influence on the world stage, we have to show up. Showing up doesn’t mean compromising who we are; it means recognizing that isolation breeds irrelevance. Prime Minister Carney’s pragmatic approach in Jeddah isn’t a departure from Canadian values, it is a long-overdue return to mature, effective global statecraft.
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