Canada wants closer ties with Saudi Arabia and will not lecture about rights "from afar," Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday during the first visit to the kingdom by a Canadian premier in 25 years.

Years after a diplomatic rift over jailed Saudi dissidents, officials would not say if Carney would raise the issue of human rights abuses.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in Saudi Arabia as he seeks economic partnerships with a strategically important country whose notorious human rights record is…