NEW DELHI: The dramatic turnaround in India-Canada relations in the past 10 months culminated in a series of major announcements and agreements, including a landmark $2.6 billion deal for supply of 22 million pounds of uranium to India from 2027 to 2035, on Monday as PM Narendra Modi hosted his counterpart Mark Carney for talks here.
The leaders committed to conclusion of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by the end of this year, with the two sides finalising the terms of reference and announcing agreements to intensify cooperation on critical minerals while also launching a new strategic energy partnership and defence dialogue.Transforming economies to be more diversified: Carney The two sides discussed each other’s security concerns — activities of separatists in India’s case and transnational repression for Canada — but the leaders avoided any explicit mention of these issues in their media remarks, having endorsed in the meeting ongoing security cooperation and a focus on consolidating the relationship.
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Modi gave credit to Carney for the increasing momentum in all areas of cooperation. The Canadian PM responded by saying that this wasn’t just a renewal of the relationship but also an expansion of the partnership as India and Canada were transforming their economies to be more diversified, more independent and more resilient.However, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) later rejected allegations of involvement in transnational violence or organised crime as reported in the Canadian media, saying these claims were baseless, politically motivated and “unsupported by credible evidence despite repeated requests”.
“India believes that concerns of this nature must be addressed through credible law enforcement and judicial processes, not through public or politicised narratives,” said MEA secretary (east) P Kumaran. The official was responding to questions related to reports in the Canadian media linking Indian officials in Vancouver to the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Nijjar and a Canadian readout of the Modi-Carney meeting that said Canada will continue to take measures to combat transnational repression. According to the Canadian readout, the leaders agreed to advance bilateral cooperation on security and law enforcement, including issues of mutual concern to Canada and India.Modi said the forward movement in ties was being powered by both sides’ unbreakable trust in democratic values, diversity and humanity, and the goal was to reach $50 billion in annual trade by 2030. The Canadian side said CEPA could lead to $70 billion of trade in the next five years. While eight agreements/MoUs were signed at the govt level, there were 24 other agreements or partnerships that were announced among universities and institutions in areas such as AI, healthcare, agriculture and innovation. An MoU was also signed under the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation Partnership for development and deployment of AI.“It is our priority to unlock the full potential of economic cooperation. Therefore, we have decided to finalise the CEPA as soon as possible. This will create new opportunities for investment and employment in both countries,” said Modi. “With Canada and India as innovation partners, we will turn ideas into global solutions,” the PM said, highlighting that the MoU on critical minerals will also strengthen supply chain resilience.While Carney didn’t touch upon the issue of terrorism, Modi said that they agreed that terrorism, extremism and radicalisation were shared and serious challenges not only for both countries but for all of humanity.
