Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney and reviewed the full scope of bilateral relations and reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing cooperation in areas such as trade, energy, innovation and people-to-people exchanges.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, eastern France.
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“It was a pleasure to meet Prime Minister Karney on the sidelines of the G7 Evian Summit,” Modi said in a post on X.
“In less than a year, this is our fourth meeting, which signals our commitment to strong relations between India and Canada. We have reviewed the full scope of relations between our two countries, especially the ground that has been covered since we last met,” he said.
“The two leaders reviewed the excellent progress made in bilateral engagement and discussed ways to build a stronger partnership driven by trade, energy, innovation, education and people-to-people exchanges,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.
The agency said in a statement that during the meeting, the two prime ministers welcomed the positive momentum in bilateral relations and noted the progress that has been made since Karney’s visit to India in March this year.
Reaffirming their commitment to a “forward-looking strategic partnership,” Modi and Karni highlighted the complementarities between the Indian and Canadian economies and stressed the importance of resilient and reliable supply chains for global energy and food security.
The leaders reviewed progress on economic cooperation, including trade arrangements related to liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and metallurgical coal.
They also expressed satisfaction with the progress made in the negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), and reaffirmed their common goal of concluding the talks in 2026, the statement said.
The Canadian Prime Minister was in India from February 27 to March 2, where India and Canada concluded key agreements on supplies of uranium and critical minerals and agreed to conclude a comprehensive economic partnership agreement soon.
At that time, the two Prime Ministers also pledged to strengthen cooperation in the areas of defence, biotechnology, small nuclear reactors, education and renewable energy.
A statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the two sides agreed during the meeting on the sidelines of the G7 meeting to launch negotiations on the General Security of Information Agreement to deepen defense and security cooperation.
They also welcomed increased institutional engagement, including recent meetings of the Joint Committee on Science and Technology and the Consular Dialogue, and looked forward to dialogues in the areas of defence, finance and migration.
The leaders also noted ongoing collaboration under the Canada-India Talent and Innovation Strategy, and announced the establishment of Raisina Americas as a platform to enhance dialogue, exchanges and collaboration. Modi also expressed support for Canada becoming a dialogue partner of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the statement said.
Relations between the two countries hit rock bottom after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in 2023 of a possible Indian connection to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nigar in Canada.
The two sides began a series of measures to rebuild relations after Carney became prime minister in March last year.
