Ottawa, Oct 13 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada towards the end of the year, India’s High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik has said, describing the trip as “almost confirmed”.
“Prime Minister (Mark) Carney has confirmed it. Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Canada towards the end of the year,” Patnaik said in an interview with CPAC’s Open Question, hosted by Marc-Andre Cossette.
“This just shows the shift that has taken place in the relationship and it’s today a very vibrant strong relationship,” he said.
The interview, posted on October 9, comes as Canadian International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu leads a Team Canada Trade Mission to India from October 12 to 17, with nearly 300 delegates and stops in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Ottawa has called it the largest trade delegation Canada has sent to India in over 30 years.
Patnaik referred to that trip in the interview, saying Sidhu would be “going with a huge team Canada next month”.
The envoy said he was confident that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) would be finalised before the first anniversary of its launch, which he dated to November 21, when the two Prime Ministers met in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the G20.
“I can tell you very confidently discussion has reached a very high level of uh collaboration,” he said. “I think before the one year is complete we’ll be able to uh finalize the agreement.”
“This would be one of the fastest we have done with any country,” he said, adding that 10 years of earlier talks with Canada had helped.
“Negotiations move at the speed of trust. And because the trust factor is much higher today, our negotiations are much faster,” Patnaik said.
The two sides aim to double bilateral trade to $70 billion within five years.
Patnaik said India wanted a zero tariff regime under the deal. “In certain sectors like in textiles, leather, chemicals, and other things in pharmaceuticals etc. there are tariffs which other countries do not have,” he said.
“We want to buy stuff from Canada. We want to buy oil and gas agri foods,” he said, adding that India was already buying uranium.
He also pointed to non-tariff barriers, including sanitary and phytosanitary rules, rules of origin and customs documentation, which he said were being discussed.
On energy, he said: “We want to buy more crude from you.” India also wanted more LNG and “More LPG which is butane and propane,” he said.
Patnaik said his earlier doubts about Canada’s reliability were about its ability to deliver energy on time, given gaps in pipelines, ports and liquefaction terminals.
“I can sign something today but can I rely on you to be able to supply to me on time?” he said.
He said he now saw “a new Canada” under Prime Minister Mark Carney, citing the major projects office and the pace of legislation.
Patnaik said Canada was important to India as “the lead into North America”, given its close links with the US.
India, he said, is a nearly $4 trillion economy expected to reach about $25 trillion by 2047. “Canada is an energy superpower,” he said.
He said Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand had met more than 12 times in the past year.
Relations between the two countries plunged in 2023 after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged a potential link between Indian government agents and the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India rejected the allegation as absurd.
–IANS
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