- Canadian PM to address finance leaders before meeting Indian PM.
- Carney wants more than double two-way trade with India by 2030.
- India hopes Canada to support to expand nuclear power capacity.
Canada PM begins key India visit, seeking to boost trade
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney landed in India on Friday for a visit he hopes would reset ties and double trade, offsetting the damage from his country’s fracturing relations with the United States.
Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists in Canada.
He arrived in the financial hub of Mumbai, where he is expected to address business leaders before travelling to the capital and meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the final day of his visit.
Indian broadcasters showed a police convoy as Carney was whisked through Mumbai.
Carney’s office said discussions would focus on “ambitious new partnerships in trade, energy, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), talent and culture, and defence”.
Last year, the two countries agreed to resume negotiations on a proposed free-trade agreement.
Carney has said he wanted to more than double two-way trade with India by 2030, eyeing an annual target of $51 billion.
Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalised Canadian citizen who was part of a fringe group that advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
Khalistan members have been blamed for the assassination of an Indian prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government further alleged India had directed a campaign of intimidation against Sikh activists across Canada.
India has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, which sent diplomatic relations into freefall, with both nations expelling a string of top diplomats in 2024.
Ties improved after Carney took office in March 2025, and envoys have since been restored.
Asked whether Canadian concerns about transnational repression would feature at the New Delhi talks, Foreign Minister Anita Anand told reporters: “That is always at the forefront of our minds.”
