Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a bilateral meeting with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney on Sunday afternoon in Johannesburg on the margins of the ongoing G20 leaders’ summit to “discuss future collaboration” between the two countries.
The schedule for that meeting was officially announced by the Canadian PMO on Saturday. Speaking to media in Johannesburg on Saturday, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand said, “The Prime Ministers are going to discuss the future collaboration of the two countries following on from my meeting with (External Affairs) Minister (S) Jaishankar back in October.” That interaction took place when she travelled to India for a bilateral visit and the two countries issued a comprehensive roadmap in a joint statement. They also met on the margins of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting or FMM in the Niagara region earlier this month.
This is the only bilateral on Carney’s schedule for Sunday and it will take place after the closing session of the summit.
This will be the first bilateral between the two PMs since they met on the margins of the G7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis in June this year. That meeting provided a breakthrough engagement that lead to the restoration of high commissioners to the two capitals and marked the reset in the relationship which had cratered under Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau who had alleged in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023, that there were “credible links” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia three months earlier. India had dismissed the accusation as “absurd” and “motivated.”
{{/usCountry}}This will be the first bilateral between the two PMs since they met on the margins of the G7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis in June this year. That meeting provided a breakthrough engagement that lead to the restoration of high commissioners to the two capitals and marked the reset in the relationship which had cratered under Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau who had alleged in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023, that there were “credible links” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia three months earlier. India had dismissed the accusation as “absurd” and “motivated.”
{{/usCountry}}The bilateral, coincidentally comes as the secessionist groups Sikhs for Justice or SFJ holds its so-called Khalistan Referendum in the Canadian capital of Ottawa on Sunday. However, Anand dismissed any suggestion of a link and said the bilateral “has been contemplated for some time.”
Engagement between India and Canada has progressed since Carney assumed charge as PM in March this year. The two countries along with Australia, announced trilateral cooperation on critical and emerging technologies on Saturday. The Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation or ACITI Partnership “will deepen collaboration between democratic partners across three continents and three oceans in emerging technologies, support diversification of supply chains, clean energy and mass adoption of AI,” Modi posted on X.
In another post, Carney noted, “We’ll work more closely together on clean energy, critical minerals, and AI to unlock new research, more opportunities, and greater prosperity.”
Anand had described India as an “important partner” after her meeting with Jaishankar in October, their third bilateral within a span of 45 days. That message was reinforced when Canada’s Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu visited India this month and called it as “key partner.”