After a year-and-half of acrimony and hostility, the new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has made a welcome diplomatic outreach to India by inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit on June 15-17. Modi has reciprocated in full measure, congratulating Carney on his recent election victory and accepting the invitation. Indeed, as vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada need to work with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests.
Apart from considerable trade and investment, India and Canada are inextricably bound by their people – over 1.86 million Indians are settled in Canada, but remain connected to India. The two sides must resume the talks for a free trade agreement which had been put in the deep freeze. Despite the political tensions, bilateral merchandise trade between India and Canada actually grew from $8.3 billion in FY23 to $8.4 billion in FY24. Apart from goods trade, both countries also have a substantial services trade.
Given the tough task ahead, teams preparing for the India-Canada engagement must now work with utmost sensitivity. While ties have nosedived since 2023, they have had a history of bad blood dating back to the 1970s, primarily over the Khalistan issue. It would be naive to imagine that these issues can be resolved in a summit, but a considered decision by both leaders to publicly show respect for each other’s positions is necessary. Returning the high commissioners and other diplomats to their posts is an imperative, along with a possible timeline for the restoration of trade talks.
India has been invited to every G7 Summit since 2019. So, the delay in the invitation for the latest G7 came as s shocker; fortunately, it came just 10 days before the summit. Nevertheless, it is a major breakthrough after the chill in bilateral ties. The two countries had downgraded diplomatic ties after Justin Trudeau, the then Canadian PM, set off a political storm in 2023 when he alleged “potential” involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of a Canada-based Khalistan separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canadian police officials even named Home Minister Amit Shah in the conspiracy. India rejected the charges as “absurd” and “motivated”. Both countries cut mission strengths down to a third. Canada suspended talks for a free trade agreement, while India temporarily stopped issuing visas to Canadians, citing persistent threats to Indian diplomats.
Following Trudeau’s exit and the defeat of Jagmeet Singh, who leads the left-leaning New Democratic Party and is viewed by New Delhi as a backer of pro-Khalistan separatists in Canada, India has been looking at Carney to handle ties with “much more maturity”. This May 25, Canada’s new Foreign Minister Anita Anand had a phone conversation with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. It was the first official political-level contact between New Delhi and Ottawa after Carney, the former head of the Bank of England who appears more level-headed than the impetuous Trudeau, won the Canadian elections and became Prime Minister, raising hopes for a reset in ties. Anand said Canada looked forward to rebuilding ties with India as part of an effort to diversify trade away from the US – even as their police investigation into the killing of Nijjar continued. This set the stage for a rapprochement.
Carney’s call to Modi came at the last minute and took many by surprise. Possibly, it transpired after some back-channel calls to ensure neither side would be embarrassed by the outcome. Under fire for the invitation despite a pending trial against Indian government agents in Canada, Carney said, quite rightly, that India, as a major world economic force, deserves to be part of the G-7 outreach deliberations.
Both countries now have a chance to reset bilateral ties. Regardless of the drama, both the invitation and its acceptance indicate a desire on both sides to take India-Canada ties out of the present lows.
Speaking in Parliament, Carney said that Modi has agreed to a “law enforcement dialogue” where, no doubt, the Nijjar case and issues over Khalistani threats to Indian diplomats and community centres will come up.
While summit-level meetings can only open a door towards bettering ties; it is the necessarily tedious and painstaking talks behind the scenes that will actually allow the two countries to step through those doors and essay a different way of engaging each other.