INDIA and Canada on Monday signed a series of agreements, including cooperation on critical minerals and a uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the two leaders said in New Delhi.
The agreements, which also include technology and renewable energy cooperation, were announced after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney said ties between the two countries were entering a new phase.
"Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust, and positivity," Modi said.
Relations had collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists in Canada. India rejected the accusations.
Carney’s visit, his first to India since taking office last year, aims to reset ties and diversify trade beyond the United States.
"There has been more engagement between the Canadian and Indian governments in the last year than there has been in more than two decades combined," Carney said in New Delhi, in a speech alongside Modi.
"This is not merely the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus, and foresight, a partnership between two confident countries charting our own course for the future."
‘New opportunities’
India, with a population of 1.4 billion, plans to expand its nuclear power capacity from eight to 100 gigawatts by 2047.
"In civil nuclear energy, we have struck a landmark deal for long-term uranium supply," Modi said, adding the countries would also cooperate on small modular reactors and advanced reactors.
Carney said the two sides agreed to launch a "strategic energy partnership with significant potential", including a CAN$2.6 billion ($1.9 billion) uranium supply agreement "supporting India's nuclear ambitions".
He said Canada was "well positioned to contribute, as a reliable supplier" of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its west coast.
"As India seeks access to critical minerals for its manufacturing, its clean-tech, and its nuclear plants, Canada's resource base and world-leading companies position it as a strategic partner," he said.
The two countries agreed last year to resume negotiations on a proposed free-trade deal, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
"Our target is to reach $50 billion in bilateral trade," Modi said. "This is why we have decided to finalise a comprehensive economic partnership soon," he added, saying it "will open new opportunities to invest and create jobs in both countries".
Defence deal
Carney said he hoped to reach the "ambitious agreement" by the end of the year to "reduce barriers and increase certainty". He also said the countries were renewing security cooperation through a "new defence partnership".
Canadian pension and wealth funds have invested $73 billion in India.
Before Carney took office, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalised Canadian citizen linked to a group advocating for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
Khalistan militants have been blamed for the assassination of an Indian prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
India has denied the allegations. In 2024, both countries expelled several senior diplomats.
Relations improved after Carney took office in March 2025, and envoys have since been restored.
After India, Carney will visit Australia and Japan as part of efforts to expand Canada’s economic partnerships.
Carney has made reducing Canada’s reliance on the US economy central to his foreign economic policy.
In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and introduced tariffs, more than 75 per cent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade exceeded $900 billion that year.
So far, Trump has largely adhered to the North American free-trade agreement signed during his first term, and about 85 per cent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.
However, he has imposed industry-specific tariffs, and there are concerns that if the broader trade deal is scrapped, the Canadian economy could face an impact.
(With inputs from agencies)
