Canada aiming to sign India trade deal this year, Mark Carney says

MUMBAI — Canada is aiming to sign a comprehensive trade deal with India this year, Prime Minister Mark Carney told a business audience in Mumbai Saturday.

“We are now negotiating a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, with the intention to double two-way trade by 2030. Our goal, to be clear, is to sign that agreement by the end of this year,” Carney said in a speech at the Canada-India Growth and Investment Forum.

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Carney is visiting Mumbai and New Delhi as part of an ongoing reset of the trade and diplomatic relationship with India.

In his speech, the prime minister pitched Canada and India as natural partners, highlighting links between people, businesses and academic institutions between the two countries. He noted investments between the two countries total more than $100 billion and two-way trade stands at more than $30 billion a year.

“The reality is, on the economic side, that level of activity is nowhere near our potential, especially as Canada and India both embark on ambitious transformations. We should aim much higher… and to be more strategic in our partnership,” Carney said.

But he acknowledged the two won’t always agree.

Carney said Canada is being “pragmatic in recognizing that progress is often incremental, that interests of nations can diverge, and that not every partner will share all our values.”

“We are actively taking on the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world that we wish to be,” he said.

Trade talks between Canada and India have stalled multiple times since they started in 2010.

Carney’s speech came as his government has been under increasing pressure to clarify whether it believes India is still engaged in foreign interference.

At a media availability earlier in the day, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand refused to answer that question, even as she was repeatedly pressed to say yes or no by reporters.

Ahead of Carney’s trip, a federal official said Carney would not be making this trip if Canada still believed agents of the Indian government were involved in extortion or threats of violence in Canada.

“Foreign interference, transnational repression is taken extremely seriously by our government and it will continue to be taken seriously because no country has a pass when it comes to domestic public safety,” Anand said.

Asked about the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s latest assessment of the threat of foreign interference posed by India, CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam referenced Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s remarks that “there is still more work to be done.”

“For its part, CSIS continues to take all allegations of foreign interference and transnational repression seriously. CSIS remains vigilant against foreign interference and espionage threats from all countries. CSIS’s threat assessment of the main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage against Canada has not changed,” Balsam said in a statement to The Canadian Press.

“When it is in Canada’s national interest to do so, CSIS will always speak publicly about threats.”

Canada’s relationship with India disintegrated over the past two years, after Ottawa said in 2023 that Canada had evidence linking Indian government agents to the murder of Canadian Sikh activist. In 2024, the RCMP said there was evidence of a wider campaign of intimidation and violence.

Anand said she will continue to raise concerns by the Sikh community with her counterparts in India.

Some Canadian Sikhs are calling on the government to take a firmer stand on India, while Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal said on social media Thursday he firmly denounces the federal official’s remarks to reporters because they contradict assessments from Canadian security agencies.

Vincent Rigby, a former national security and intelligence adviser to the federal government who now teaches at McGill University, said it “strains credibility” to suggest India has stopped harmful meddling in Canadian affairs.

In Mumbai Saturday, both Anand and Carney put the focus on academic partnerships with India, appearing at an event focused on showcasing university talent and innovation.

Anand announced a new Canada-India strategy on talent and innovation, launched by Universities Canada and Colleges and Institutes Canada, which includes 13 new partnerships between Canadian and Indian universities.

Carney then toured some of the booths at the event, stopping to hear presentations and chat with the researchers.

Earlier in the day, he received a private tour of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya history museum, which included the textiles and painting galleries.

— with files from Jim Bronskill in Ottawa

Read more:

• Canada can’t brush aside security concerns about India, ex-intelligence adviser warns
• Canada aiming to sign India trade deal this year, Carney says in Mumbai
• VIDEO: U.S. and Israel attack Iran, Canadians told to take shelter