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Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to India Thursday for what officials in both countries describe as a potentially history-making trip — one meant to put years of frosty relations aside and lay the groundwork for a comprehensive trade deal.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said this week the “security situation” with India is an “extreme concern and priority.” Even so, Ottawa is signaling it is still willing to do business despite India’s alleged involvement in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, on B.C. soil.
In 2023, former prime minister Justin Trudeau accused unnamed Indian agents of involvement in the fatal shooting of the Sikh separatist, a declaration that upended the relationship. A year later, the RCMP said the Indian government had played a role in “widespread violence” in Canada, including homicide and extortion.
However, speaking to reporters at a background briefing on the trip Wednesday, a government official said Ottawa is confident “that activity has not continued” and there is now “robust diplomatic engagement” on security issues.
“I really don’t think we would be taking this trip if we thought these kinds of activities were continuing,” the official said. He added there are “significant opportunities for partnership” between Canada and India.
That is not how prominent Sikh activist Moninder Singh sees it.
Singh said Vancouver police warned him on Sunday about a credible threat to his life. He suspects it is tied to the Indian government because of his work on referendum campaigns in Canada aimed at creating a separate Sikh state.
“In the wake of all that, we’re going to India to reward them with trade deals. I think nothing could be a bigger slap in the face of the people that are at risk,” Singh said in an interview with CBC News.
India, for its part, is also putting aside its claims that Canada is harboring Khalistani extremists — those supporting violence to establish a Sikh homeland — in what appears to be a diplomatic breakthrough with a one-time foe.
In an interview, India’s high commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, said he believes a sweeping deal on trade and other matters can come together quickly.
“We are hopeful by the time the prime minister is in India, the terms of reference will be ready and we can start negotiations,” Patnaik said.
“This visit is going to set a base on which we can take the relationship to the next level.”
On security concerns, Patnaik said the two countries are working together now that diplomatic relations have been restored. “We are tackling it up front. That’s how mature democracies work,” he said.
“If we find out that agents of the government, or rogue agents, or Indian people are associated with what has happened with Mr. Nijjar, we ourselves will take action along with the Canadians.”
A very different trip than Trudeau’s India visit
While former prime minister Justin Trudeau famously donned Indian clothing and toured major tourist sites on his 2018 trip, Carney has nothing like that planned.
Government officials say the focus is almost entirely on business deals and expanding economic ties with the world’s most populous country as part of a trade-diversification push.
Unlike Trudeau, Carney has no private tour of the Taj Mahal on his itinerary for what is scheduled to be a five-day visit.
“We learn lessons from one trip to another,” a government official said when asked about Trudeau’s eventful visit, which was also derailed when a convicted murderer associated with Sikh separatists was invited to a private event with the then prime minister and his wife.
There is also no planned visit to the Golden Temple, a sacred Sikh site, or to the wider Punjab, long a stop for past prime ministers given the number of Indo-Canadians with ties to that faith and region.
Instead, Carney’s itinerary includes a longer stay in the business capital, Mumbai, to meet Indian companies looking to expand ties with Canadian firms.
Premiers Scott Moe of Saskatchewan and Susan Holt of New Brunswick will join part of the trip — a signal that deals affecting their provinces could take shape in the coming days.
Carney’s broader goal is a comprehensive economic partnership covering most goods and services traded between the two countries.
The Mumbai stop will be followed by talks in Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Officials on both sides say an agreement could be reached in less than 12 months if all goes well.
Carney and Modi will also discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionism, which Indian officials told CBC News is disrupting trade in both nations.
The fact the trip is happening at all underscores how quickly both sides have moved on — at least in part — from the once seemingly insurmountable dispute over Nijjar and crime.
Indian officials said Carney’s decision to invite Modi to the G7 summit in Kananaskis last summer signalled a different approach from Trudeau. It was in Alberta that Carney and Modi agreed to formally launch negotiations on an economic partnership.
Subsequent visits to India by Sidhu, Anand and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson also helped repair relations, Indian officials said.
Trade talks have dragged on for some 16 years, with repeated starts and stops. But Patnaik said this time is different.
India recently signed an agreement with the European Union — one of the largest trade deals in history, covering roughly two billion people — and Patnaik said it will serve as a model for what India can broker with Canada.
“I’m confident that, given the intent of both sides, both prime ministers are very keen to do it,” Patnaik said of a trade deal. “We are looking at one year, but I have a feeling it will be faster.”
Patnaik, who started as high commissioner last fall, said the perception from India was that under the last government Canada was “a difficult country.”
“Now the perception is that Canada is ready to do business with the world,” he said. “I think people trust Prime Minister Carney to be able to do much more.”
Vina Najibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said the trip has the potential to be hugely significant — a chance to draw closer to an Indo-Pacific power, unlock billions in trade and bolster sectors hurt by the U.S. trade war.
“It’s an opportunity for Prime Minister Carney to consolidate the reset that he began with India last year, but to also elevate and expand the relationship to show that this relationship has depth,” Najibulla said.
Carney has promised to boost non-U.S. exports by about $300 billion over the next 10 years to reduce Canada’s reliance on the American market. Najibulla said the government cannot afford to leave India out of that plan. “India has to be a critical part of that puzzle,” she said
Najibulla said there are lingering tensions over Nijjar, as well as the Public Inquiry on Foreign Interference, which singled out India for “deceptive, clandestine or threatening activities” in Canada “to influence Canadian communities and politicians.”
Still, “we also have to recognize that we don’t live in a world in which Canada can cut itself off from 1.4 billion people and from one of the largest and fastest growing economies,” Najibulla said.
Balpreet Singh, a spokesperson for the World Sikh Organization, said Carney looking past violent episodes to broker a trade deal is a form of “appeasement.”
“A foreign government can target a political leader here in Canada and there are absolutely no consequences,” Singh said. “There is open season on Sikh activists in Canada.”
Source: cbc
