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With Trump's ‘51st state’ jab, tariff war in backdrop, Canada PM Carney set for key India visit | What's on agenda
Carney's India visit comes with a backdrop of Trump threatening Canada’s economy, sovereignty with tariffs, most boldly by claiming Canada could be “51st state”
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to depart for India on Thursday for a visit focused on “elevating and expanding” ties and partnership in trade amid Donald Trump's tariff threats , energy and AI (artificial intelligence) through “immense” range of deals.
Carney is expected to depart at 10 am local time (8:30 pm IST), according to the official statement by the Prime Minister of Canada's office. Carney visit to India will conclude on March 2.
Carney’s trip will also include visits to Australia and Japan. However, the first leg of the visit will be in India, beginning with Mumbai before the Canadian PM travels to New Delhi. Carney will depart for Australia on March 2.
Carney will meet will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Delhi, where the “leaders will focus on elevating and expanding the Canada-India relationship, with ambitious new partnerships in trade, energy, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), talent and culture, and defence,” according to an earlier HT report which a release from the Canadian PMO on Monday morning.
Carney will meet with business leaders to identify investment opportunities in Canada and create new partnerships between businesses in both nations.
Why Carney's India visit is crucial
The visit by Carney comes after almost a year-long effort to better relations with PM Modi. India and Canada ties were hit after a diplomatic row broke out in September 2023, when former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of orchestrating the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar - a claim the Indian government furiously denied.
The India, Australia and Japan trip of Carney also marks his latest effort to diversify trade away from the United States, whose President - Donald Trump - has been threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty with tariffs, most boldly by claiming Canada could be “the 51st state.”
Trump in January - before the Supreme Court ruling that deemed duties illegal - threatened 100 per cent tariff on goods imported from Canada over that country’s proposed China trade deal, intensifying a tiff with the longtime US ally and Carney.
Dinesh Patnaik, the country’s high commissioner in Ottawa, said the the Carney visit is expected to include a deal expanding Canada’s uranium shipments to India, according to Bloomberg.
Near the end of Trudeau’s tenure, India and Canada ties did begin thawing. The diplomatic tensions saw Canada moving to expel six Indian officials, alleging that agents linked to the government were conducting a campaign of violence, intimidation and extortion against Canadian citizens. India countered with similar actions.
A first step of sorts in easing of tensions came when Carney met Modi on the margins of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis in June 2025. After High Commissioners were reinstated in both capitals, they met again at the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, where Modi invited Carney to India and the two countries announced they will undertake fresh negotiations towards the comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA .
Carney's India stop will also mark the first bilateral visit by a Canadian prime minister to India in eight years. Then PM Justin Trudeau visited to India in February 2018 but that 11-day jaunt proved a disaster as not only were his official engagement scheduled for the last couple of days of that expansive trip but Jaspal Atwal, convicted for the murder of visiting Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver Island in 1986, turned up at an official reception hosted by the Canadian High Commission, as reported by HT earlier.
