PM Modi meets Canadian counterpart, discusses ways to build stronger partnership

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney and reviewed the full spectrum of bilateral ties, reaffirming their commitment to strengthening cooperation in areas such as trade, energy, innovation, and people-to-people exchanges.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, in Evian on Tuesday. (@narendramodi X)

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains in eastern France.

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"It was a delight to meet Prime Minister Carney on the sidelines of the Evian G7 Summit," Modi said in a post on X.

"In less than a year, it is our fourth meeting, indicating our commitment to strong India-Canada ties. We reviewed the full range of relations between our nations, notably the ground covered since we last met," he said.

"Both 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," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.

During the meeting, the two prime ministers welcomed the positive momentum in bilateral relations and noted the progress achieved since Carney's visit to India in March this year, the MEA said in a statement.

Reaffirming their commitment to a "forward-looking strategic partnership", Modi and Carney highlighted the complementarities between the Indian and Canadian economies and underscored the importance of resilient and reliable supply chains for global energy and food security.

The leaders reviewed progress in economic cooperation, including commercial arrangements relating to LNG, LPG and metallurgical coal.

They also expressed satisfaction over the progress in negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and reaffirmed their shared objective of concluding the talks in 2026, it said.

The Canadian prime minister was in India from February 27 to March 2, during which India and Canada sealed key pacts on supplies of Uranium and critical minerals and agreed to conclude a comprehensive economic partnership agreement soon.

At the time, the two prime ministers had also pledged to ramp up cooperation in defence, critical technologies, small and modular nuclear reactors, education and renewable energy.

At the meeting on the sidelines of the G7, the two sides agreed to launch negotiations on a General Security of Information Agreement to deepen defence and security cooperation, the MEA statement said.

They also welcomed growing institutional engagement, including recent meetings of the Joint Science and Technology Committee 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 further strengthen dialogue, exchanges and cooperation. Modi also expressed support for Canada becoming a Dialogue Partner of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the statement said.

The ties between the two countries hit rock bottom following then-prime minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in 2023 of a potential Indian link to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

The two sides initiated a series of measures to rebuild the relations after Carney became the prime minister in March last year.