Canadian PM to visit India on Feb 27 to expand trade, AI ties

CAnadian undercoat government minister deutschmark Carney is scheduled to see bharat on February 27 with a focus on “elevating and expanding” ties and partnership in trade, energy and AI, according to an announcement by his office on Monday, which also described India as one of Canada’s strongest Indo-Pacific partners.Carney’s trip will also include visits to Australia and Japan. However, the first leg of the visit will be in India, beginning with Mumbai before the Canadian PM travels to New Delhi. Carney will depart for Australia on March 2.He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Indian capital where the “leaders will focus on elevating and expanding the Canada-India relationship, with ambitious new partnerships in trade, energy, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), talent and culture, and defence,” a release from the Canadian PMO on Monday morning said. He will meet with business leaders to identify investment opportunities in Canada and create new partnerships between businesses in both nations.“Through these visits to three of Canada’s strongest Indo-Pacific partners, the Prime Minister will deepen regional ties that are critical to our security and prosperity,” the PMO said.“In a more uncertain world, Canada is focused on what we can control. We are diversifying our trade and attracting massive new investment to create new opportunities for our workers and businesses. We are forging new partnerships abroad to create greater certainty, security and prosperity at home,” Carney said.The visit overall will continue till March 7, as Carney will travel to Australia from India, where he will meet his counterpart Anthony Albanese and address both Houses of Parliament in Canberra.The final leg of the 10-day long trip covering the three nations will be in Tokyo, where he will meet recently re-elected Japanese PM Takaichi Sanae.The Canadian PMO release pointed out that India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy and a powerhouse in global commerce and technology. In 2024, India was Canada’s seventh-largest goods and services trading partner, with two-way trade coming to CA$ 30.8 billion.The visit to India comes after a renewal in ties between the two countries since Carney assumed charge as PM in March last year. A reset came into place after Carney met Modi on the margins of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis in June 2025. After High Commissioners were reinstated in both capitals, they met again at the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, where Modi invited Carney to India and the two countries announced they will undertake fresh negotiations towards the comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA. While there will be an announcement in that regard during Carney’s visit, the goal is to more than double two-day trade to CA$ 70 billion by 2030.India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Dinesh Patnaik said the visit will be professional and businesslike. “This visit is to show that India and Canada can interact on every possible sector and area that defines a relationship between two countries. So it’s not limited to only one aspect. Every aspect of the relationship will be addressed and there will be a lot of activity. We are looking at a comprehensive package,” he added.Since he had to cancel his visit to the Munich Security Conference due to the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia last week, this will be Carney’s first international trip since his speech at Davos last month where he spoke of the “rupture” in the rules-based world order.This will also mark the first bilateral visit by a Canadian Prime Minister to India in eight years. Then PM Justin Trudeau visited to India in February 2018 but that 11-day jaunt proved a disaster as not only were his official engagement scheduled for the last couple of days of that expansive trip but Jaspal Atwal, convicted for the murder of visiting Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver Island in 1986, turned up at an official reception hosted by the Canadian High Commission.Relations between Canada and India cratered in September 2023 when Trudeau stated in the House of Commons that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 that year. India described those accusations as “absurd” and “motivated.”Ties improved after Carney succeeded Trudeau as PM in March last year and then retained power in the April 2025 Federal election.“The visit of Prime Minister Carney will just put the stamp on this evolving relationship. It will provide the big boost necessary,” Patnaik said, as he described the forthcoming trip as a “new beginning.”