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Indian finance minister to visit Canada, take part in inaugural Economic and Financial Dialogue
Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a bilateral meeting with Canada’s Minister of Finance and National Revenue Francois-Philippe Champagne. She will also meet with representatives from Indo-Canadian chambers of commerce and community associations
Toronto: Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to make a two-day visit to Canada later this month and, along with the Canadian counterpart, she will participate in the inaugural Economic and Financial Dialogue between the two countries.
Sitharaman will arrive in Toronto, Canada’s financial capital, on August 26, and participate in a meeting with the country’s corporate leaders being hosted by the Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). She will also meet with representatives from Indo-Canadian chambers of commerce and community associations.
On August 27, she will hold a bilateral meeting with Canada’s Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne, as they will jointly launch the sectoral dialogue, one of the several verticals that have been activated including that on law enforcement and security.
India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Dinesh Patnaik said the visit will be “great” for continuing to impart impetus to the relationship, which has been renewed after Prime Minister Mark Carney assumed charge in March 2025.
Patnaik pointed out there is a solid foundation to work with, as Canadian investors, mainly pension funds have over CA$ 100 billion placed in India. That sentiment is likely to be reciprocated by their Indian investors, as India will be a participant at the Canada Investment Summit being hosted by Carney in Toronto next month.
The two FMs will engage in a discussion being hosted by the Canadian Club Toronto, with the theme, Canada and India: Advancing Shared Economic Interests. Moderated by C-IBC president and CEO Victor Thomas, the discussion will look at the “opportunity to deepen investment, strengthen trade and build new partnerships across key sectors” and “explore where the greatest opportunities lie, what is needed to give businesses and investors greater confidence, and how economic cooperation can help reinvigorate the broader bilateral relationship”.
Thomas said, “Minister Sitharaman’s visit is her first to Canada as Finance Minister, and she joins a remarkable roster of senior Indian officials engaging with Canada in recent months.”
“These visits matter: they build real momentum in the corridor, lay the groundwork for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, and set the table for a bilateral visit by Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi later this year, something we haven’t seen in over a decade. Canadian business leaders will have the opportunity to engage with India’s Finance Minister at exactly the right moment,” he added.
Vina Nadjibulla, co-founder and CEO of the Centre for Strategic Statecraft, a Canadian foreign policy think tank, concurred, as she said Sitharaman’s “visit is another sign of the deliberate, step-by-step deepening of Canada–India relations”.
“Regular engagement between the two finance ministers can help give the broader economic relationship much greater depth,” she said, adding they had a substantial agenda, with the dialogue covering capital markets, financial stability, fintech and payments modernisation. “There is real potential to make cross-border payments and remittances easier, deepen two-way investment and connect Canadian financial institutions and capital more closely to India’s growth story,” Nadjibulla felt.
Both countries are also attempting to manage their trading relationship with the United States. “Both countries have a powerful incentive to diversify their markets, investment relationships and supply chains. That makes a deeper Canada-India economic partnership more strategically important than ever before,” she said.
