NEW DELHI: After the recent visit by Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand, which saw the announcement of a number of initiatives to upgrade the Canada-India relationship, both countries remain in touch about more high-level engagements in the next few months.These include a possible meeting between PM Narendra Modi and his counterpart Mark Carney next month on the margins of G20 summit in South Africa and a visit by the latter to India early next year.Both leaders are expected to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Nov 22-23. It is learnt that the two countries are already working towards a bilateral meeting on the sidelines. The two leaders had their first meeting in June this year when Canada hosted the G7 summit. India has also invited Carney for the AI summit it will host in Feb next year and is hoping the Canadia PM would attend. “We want an early visit of the Prime Minister to India. It is a relationship we do not want to go downhill,” said India’s high commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik in an interview to The Globe and Mail.India and Canada also announced during Anand’s visit that they would commence trade discussions.Modi also met Anand during her visit, in a sign of the importance India attaches to the relationship. However, India is still awaiting a response from Canada on restarting the free trade talks that were stalled in 2023, following differences over allegations by former PM Justin Trudeau that Indian govt officials masterminded the killing of a Sikh separatist and Canadian national, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. “If Canada wants to start negotiations (for a trade deal) we would be more than happy to speed up things, to do it in a fast way. You are looking at minimum of $50 billion (bilateral trade volume) if we allow the proper environment for it,” said Patnaik.
