Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
India and Canada are together contributing to a “more stable and prosperous world”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a call with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, during which they agreed to conclude a trade agreement soon. The phone call on Tuesday night (October 13, 2026) came even as senior Canadian Ministers, including Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu, are in Delhi for talks with their counterparts — External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal — and to firm up plans for Mr. Modi’s visit to Ottawa in December.
Last week, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval also hosted Canadian Senior Diplomatic and International Affairs Advisor David Morrison, during which the two sides discussed cooperation on “security and law enforcement”, without mentioning the Nijjar killing case that had led to the suspension of relations between the two countries from 2023 to 2025.
On Wednesday morning (October 14), Ms. Anand and Mr. Jaishankar will be part of a panel discussion to discuss the “Middle Power Moment”, along with former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Over the past few months, New Delhi has stepped up its engagement with “middle powers”, given the unilateral behaviour of superpowers U.S., Russia and China. During the UNGA week, India agreed to co-sponsor a resolution initiated by the European Union, Canada, Kenya and Brazil called the “Partnership for Multilateralism”
Prime Minister Modi said his conversation with PM Carney had been “warm and productive”. “We agreed to build on the positive momentum in India-Canada ties and work towards concrete outcomes across key areas of our Strategic Partnership, including trade, energy, technology, security and people-to-people ties,” Mr. Modi said in a post on social media.
The Canadian Prime Minister’s office put out a more detailed readout of the conversation, adding that the two Prime Ministers had discussed defence and security in addition to those issues as well as reaffirming their commitment to conclude negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) at the “earliest opportunity,” and to double two-way trade, at about $23 billion in 2025, by 2030.
According to officials, the two sides are expected to announce the agreement in mid-December, when Mr. Modi will travel to Canada for his first bilateral visit in more than a decade. A team from the BJP has already visited Canada for discussions on a major diaspora event.
Mr. Modi has met Mr. Carney twice this year already, in Delhi for the AI Summit and in France, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian, a considerable change from ties with the previous Trudeau government, which had accused India of involvement in the killing of Khalistani activist Harjeet Singh Nijjar.
“The leaders also discussed the impacts of geopolitical instability for the Indo-Pacific region and the need for trusted partners in the areas of energy and agriculture. Prime Minister Carney thanked Prime Minister Modi for his leadership in seeking a peaceful resolution to Russia’s war on Ukraine,” the statement said, referring to India’s efforts to convey messages between Moscow and Kyiv over possible agreements on grain exports and commercial shipping safety.
Published – October 13, 2026 11:41 pm IST
