Kumar Bahukhandi
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, middle, introduces Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand, left, during a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 Summit, in Johannesburg (AP)
Relations between Canada and India have been strained since Canadian police accused New Delhi of playing a role in the June 2023 assassination of a Canadian Sikh activist
Toronto: Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said Monday November 24 that Canada and India will move quickly to advance a trade deal after two years of strained relations, noting Ottawa has a new foreign policy in response to US President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Anand’s statement follows a meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Group of 20 summit in South Africa this past weekend, where the leaders agreed to restart stalled talks for a new trade deal.
Relations between Canada and India have been strained since Canadian police accused New Delhi of playing a role in the June 2023 assassination of a Canadian Sikh activist near Vancouver.
“The leaders were adamant that this work proceed as quickly as possible so that timing is going to be expeditious,” Anand said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Carney will visit India early next year.
Anand noted Carney’s goal to double non-US trade over the next decade. Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and more than 75 per cent of Canada’s exports go to the US. Most exports to the US are exempted by the USMCA trade agreement but that deal is up for review in 2026.
“This is a completely new approach to foreign policy that is responsive to the global economic environment in which we find ourselves,” Anand said. “There is a new government, a new foreign policy, a new prime minister and a new world order where countries are becoming more protectionist and this is a moment for Canada as a trading nation.”
Canada is also seeking better relations with Beijing. Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping took a step toward mending the long-fractured ties between their countries last month with a meeting at the Asia-Pacific summit.
In 2023, Ottawa suspended trade talks after going public with allegations from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that the Indian government was behind an assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.
Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Niijar’s murder and are awaiting trial in Canada.
Relations improved in June when Carney invited Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta and when both countries agreed to restore their top diplomats in August.
“This is a step by step process. And in the last six months, significant steps have been taken,” Anand said.
Anand said both countries expect to be able to double bilateral trade by 2030, to USD50 billion, and noted that Canada is India’s seventh largest trade partner for goods and services, and one of the largest foreign investors in India.
Trump ended trade talks with Carney after the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the US, which upset him. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over the president’s insistence that Canada should become the 51st US state. Anand said Canada remains ready to resume trade talks with Trump.
“We are operating under the fact that the United States has fundamentally changed all of its trading relationships,” Anand said. “We look forward to getting back to the table.”
( Source : AP )
