{"id":234272,"date":"2025-10-23T11:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T11:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/234272\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T11:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T11:29:10","slug":"india-invites-carney-to-new-delhi-as-relations-warm-and-talk-turns-to-free-trade-pact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/234272\/","title":{"rendered":"India invites Carney to New Delhi as relations warm and talk turns to free trade pact"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., on June 17.Amber Bracken\/Reuters<\/p>\n

India<\/a> has invited Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi early in the new year that could open the door to a comprehensive economic and free trade partnership.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s new High Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Patnaik told The Globe and Mail that there is a sincere effort on the part of both leaders to repair fractured diplomatic relations<\/a> and focus on trade and investment opportunities amid a tariff<\/a> war with the United States.<\/p>\n

Bilateral trade could top more than $50-billion annually if the two countries can negotiate a far-reaching deal, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want an early visit of the Prime Minister to India,\u201d Mr. Patnaik said in an interview. \u201cIt is a relationship we do not want to go downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free-trade talks were paused in the fall of 2023 when then-prime minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused the Modi government of playing a role in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar<\/a> in Surrey, B.C., earlier that year.<\/p>\n

Canada and India set out \u2018new roadmap\u2019 for relations after Anand meets Modi<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada later expelled India\u2019s High Commissioner and five other diplomats after the RCMP said it had evidence that Indian government agents had been linked to homicides, extortion and other violent activities in Canada.<\/p>\n

India strongly denied the allegations and responded with tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions. Diplomatic relations are back on track after a meeting between Mr. Carney and Mr. Modi at the Group of Seven summit in Alberta in June.<\/p>\n

Mr. Patnaik said high-level bilateral discussions have been going on since the summer to deal with national-security concerns so the two leaders can focus on expanding economic ties.<\/p>\n

An invitation has been sent to Mr. Carney to attend the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in New Delhi in February. This year\u2019s AI summit was held in Paris and included heads of state, CEOs and AI leaders.<\/p>\n

Mr. Modi would carve out time for Mr. Carney to discuss bilateral issues, including an economic and free-trade pact, Mr. Patnaik said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping he accepts. If not, we will always find some time when we can do this before March,\u201d he said. \u201cI want him to go before May when it really heats up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: Canada is right to re-engage India. And Canadians support that<\/a><\/p>\n

Bilateral trade between India and Canada hit a record $23.6-billion in 2024, up $12.7-billion from 2023 and Mr. Patnaik said an economic and trade deal could easily double in value. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Canada wants to start negotiations we would be more than happy to speed up things, to do it in a fast way,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are looking at minimum of $50-billion if we allow the proper environment for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

India is keen to buy Canadian oil and gas, nuclear power, battery storage, fertilizers, processed food and agriculture products. It is also open for increased co-operation on AI and quantum computing, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Patnaik said Canadian canola could find a market in India, which is the world\u2019s biggest consumer of cooking fuel. That would lessen Canada\u2019s dependence on China, which recently banned Canadian canola in retaliation for 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

But the Indian envoy said it would require a Canadian marketing campaign as Indians favour cooking oil from grains such as sunflowers, palm, rapeseed and mustard. <\/p>\n

India is also open to investing in Canadian energy and critical minerals, but he said Ottawa needs to lay down reliable investment rules, environmental standards and aboriginal title.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly we would be happy to come to invest in Canada but you have to create the ecosystem for people to come in,\u201d he said, lauding Mr. Carney for setting up a fast-track Major Projects Office in Calgary.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe are waiting for Canada to sell to us but if Canada doesn\u2019t come, we\u2019ll find other suppliers. It\u2019s not a [India] market where we can wait forever for Canada to come sell to us.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Anita Anand met with Mr. Modi and senior ministers in New Delhi earlier this month.Francis Mascarenhas\/Reuters<\/p>\n

During a recent visit to New Delhi, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand signed a joint declaration that covers issues of law enforcement and respect for the rule of law but also serves as a framework to develop stronger trade and economic ties.<\/p>\n

Mr. Patnaik said Indian police and national-security agencies are now exchanging information and seeking closer co-operation with the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service. <\/p>\n

But he refused to acknowledge that India played any role in the killing of Mr. Nijjar or that it has been conducting foreign-interference operations. He complained that Canada is doing little to stop illegal activities by some Canadian Sikhs, who promote a separate Khalistan state in Punjab.<\/p>\n

He said Indian police recently found 72 guns in the home of a Canadian Sikh in Punjab after the individual returned to Canada.<\/p>\n

New Delhi is frustrated that Ottawa expects India to accept evidence of its involvement in violent acts but won\u2019t accept Indian evidence of alleged wrongdoing by Canadian Sikh separatists, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYour evidence is enough but our evidence is not enough,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to talk. We need to have a clear security dialogue.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said a group of Khalistani separatists showed up outside his home last Saturday, chanting for his death and carrying posters with a target of the High Commissioner and offering a $10,000 reward. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had my daughter and granddaughter visiting me and they were scared,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G7…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-234272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}