{"id":495923,"date":"2026-02-24T08:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495923\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T08:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:40:08","slug":"carney-to-visit-mumbai-new-delhi-but-not-punjab-in-business-focused-india-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/495923\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney to visit Mumbai, New Delhi but not Punjab in business-focused India trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Prime Minister Mark Carney and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands during the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis on June 17, 2025. Mr. Carney is set to visit India starting Friday to seek new investment and export markets.Amber Bracken\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Mark Carney<\/a>\u2019s first trip to India<\/a> will include stops in the country\u2019s business capital and its seat of government but no visit to the northern state of Punjab, a major source of immigration to Canada.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister\u2019s visit, announced Monday, begins Friday when his plane reaches India. His office said in a statement that he is heading to Mumbai, where he will meet with business leaders, and New Delhi, for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney will be in the country seeking new investment and export markets for Canada as Ottawa tries to reduce its economic reliance on an increasingly protectionist United States.<\/p>\n

India an ideal target for increased Canadian energy exports, analysts say<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a notably different itinerary from those of the Prime Minister\u2019s two predecessors, Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, and suggests that this government would like to avoid antagonizing its Indian hosts, whose opposition to separatists trying to turn Punjab into an independent Sikh homeland has been a past source of tension between the countries.<\/p>\n

Both Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Harper visited Punjab and its Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest site in the Sikh faith, during their first official trips to India \u2013 Mr. Harper in 2009 and Mr. Trudeau in 2018. <\/p>\n

Mr. Harper returned to Punjab during his 2012 visit as well, touring the Sikh Heritage Centre among other locations. During that second trip, he also visited a Hindu shrine in India.<\/p>\n

Visiting the Golden Temple has been widely viewed as a symbolic gesture toward Canada\u2019s large Sikh community, a group that has played a significant role in Canadian politics. <\/p>\n

Three of the previous four prime ministers made the trip. Jean Chr\u00e9tien visited the temple in 2003 when he was prime minister. Paul Martin, who followed Mr. Chr\u00e9tien as PM, did not.<\/p>\n

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

Sikh devotees blow traditional trumpets during a religious procession at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Dec. 26, 2025.NARINDER NANU\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

This religious site has a troubled history. Back in 1984, Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple on then-prime minister Indira Gandhi\u2019s order to dislodge Sikhs whom her government described as terrorists. New Delhi accused them of directing a violent campaign for more autonomy in Punjab. The result was a bloodbath. Ms. Gandhi was assassinated months later by Sikh bodyguards. This triggered a wave of anti-Sikh riots that left thousands of Sikhs dead.<\/p>\n

In recent decades, the Khalistani movement among some Sikhs in Canada and other overseas communities, which seeks to carve a separate homeland out of India, has been a major fault line in relations between Ottawa and New Delhi. India has long complained that Canada provides a haven for Khalistan advocates.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian activist for Khalistan, was murdered in Surrey, B.C., and Mr. Trudeau, then prime minister, accused the Indian government of a role in the slaying. New Delhi has denied the charge. Four Indian nationals now face charges in the Nijjar case.<\/p>\n

India no longer views Canada as \u2018younger brother\u2019 of U.S. under Carney, envoy says<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked about the absence of a Punjab stop, Prime Minister\u2019s Office (PMO) press secretary Laura Scaffidi said in a statement that Mr. Carney will travel to Mumbai and New Delhi to \u201cfocus on expanding economic and business relationships, identify investment opportunities in Canada, and create new partnerships between businesses in both nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Scaffidi said cultural outreach will take place at home. \u201cWhen he is in Canada, the Prime Minister will continue his engagements with cultural communities including attending important celebrations and events on days of significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney attended Vaisakhi celebrations with the Sikh community last April in Ottawa, for instance, she said.<\/p>\n

Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, said he\u2019s in favour of the Carney itinerary for India.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a serious time and warrants a serious visit. Prime Minister Carney is right not to get distracted by diaspora political events,\u201d said Mr. Hyder, who is an Indo-Canadian. <\/p>\n

After Mumbai, where he will talk with business leaders, the Prime Minister will head to New Delhi to meet with his Indian counterpart. The two will discuss \u201cambitious new partnerships in trade, energy, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), talent and culture, and defence,\u201d the PMO said in a separate statement. Mr. Carney will also meet business leaders in New Delhi.<\/p>\n

Rita Trichur: Trump\u2019s trade tactics with India remind the world that Canada is a more trustworthy partner<\/a><\/p>\n

Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said she takes Mr. Carney\u2019s itinerary as a sign that his foreign policy is \u201cmore focused on national interest and not limited to certain diaspora priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the Ottawa-based World Sikh Organization, said his organization met with Dominic LeBlanc when he was minister of public safety in the Trudeau government.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Singh said the WSO has been unable to procure a meeting with Gary Anandasangaree, the current Public Safety Minister. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe doors have been shut to us,\u201d Mr. Singh said.<\/p>\n

He said it appears that Mr. Carney \u201cwants to show the Indians \u2018I\u2019m here to do business, and let\u2019s not let the Sikhs complicate things.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney is headed to Australia and Japan after the India visit, also seeking new investment and export markets for Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-495923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495923","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=495923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}