Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday described his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as a “one-of-a-kind man” and joked about the prime minister’s “weekend” routine.
Karney was speaking about his interaction with Prime Minister Modi during his visit to India at a symposium hosted by the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia.
When asked about his assessment of Prime Minister Modi, Karni said: “The man is one of a kind. He has not taken a day off in 25 years, either as Gujarat chief minister or as prime minister.”
While referring to Prime Minister Modi’s relentless dedication as a political leader, Carney joked with his Canadian Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.
“He doesn’t even take a single day off. Every weekend, like you, François-Philippe, he goes out on an election campaign. He brings together 250,000 people in his rallies, and you get 25, but that’s okay,” Carney joked, sparking laughter from the audience at the symposium.
The Canadian Prime Minister also praised Modi’s work ethic, saying he remains “very focused” on providing for the needs of rural residents. He highlighted UPI as a major turning point in the country’s payment system and termed it an important achievement of Prime Minister Modi’s administration.
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“He gave me an idea that anyone could follow, which is that he’s someone who’s very focused on delivery… I’ll direct him to rural households… so the big thrust of the financial reform transformations, the transformation of payment systems, Unified Payments (UPI) and other things was to get money directly, you know, directly to individuals without leakage, so to speak, into the system in real time. And to bring people… you know, hundreds of millions of people into the formal economy. And he was very focused on that aspect of delivery,” Carney said at the symposium.
Earlier this month, Carney was on a four-day visit to India as part of Ottawa’s efforts to rebuild relations that hit a low in 2023 after former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged Indian government agents were linked to the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nigar.
After a bilateral meeting, Prime Minister Modi and Mark Carney confirmed the agreements on critical minerals and supply of uranium ore, and finalized the terms of reference for negotiations on the FTA.
Besides an MoU on critical minerals, the Indian Ministry of Atomic Energy and Canada’s Cameco, one of the world’s largest publicly traded uranium companies, signed a $2.6 billion agreement to supply 22 million pounds of uranium ore during 2027-2035, HT had earlier reported.
Carney is the first Canadian Prime Minister to visit India in eight years. Expressing his support for stronger trade and defense ties during his visit, he said: “Like India, we know that the certainties that have governed trade, security, finance and diplomacy for more than a generation have been overturned.”
