Canadian PM Says Progress Made In India Ties Amid Push To Reduce US Reliance

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said there has been progress in ties with India, as he stressed on reducing reliance on the United States amid trade tensions between the two countries over a controversial tariff advertisement featuring former US President Ronald Reagan.

Speaking at a news conference, Carney said the US is changing its trading relationship with Canada and others, and said that Ottawa must reduce its reliance on America. He also said Canada’s relations with China were at a turning point as he accepted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s invitation to visit China next year.

“A turning point in our relationship with China. Progress which we have been making with India – not part of these meetings, so I didn’t meet directly with Prime

Minister Modi here, the foreign minister and other ministers have been meeting with India. That’s what we’re doing to build our strength at home first and foremost, build these partnerships abroad, reduce our reliance on the United States,” he said.

His remarks came after Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last month. The Prime Minister conveyed that her visit would contribute to ongoing efforts to impart new momentum to the India–Canada bilateral partnership.

She also held “constructive discussions” with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar “to restore and reinvigorate the mechanisms necessary to advance our partnership.”

The renewed vibrancy in the ties between the two countries followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney on the margins of the G7 Summit at Canada’s Kananaskis in June.

The India-Canada relations hit rock bottom following the then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in 2023 of a potential Indian link to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India had dismissed Trudeau’s accusation as “absurd”.

Meanwhile, the last meeting between the leaders of Canada and China happened in 2017 when then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a brief exchange with Xi at a meeting in San Francisco. Relations have been strained as Canadian citizens were detained and executed in China in recent years, and Canadian authorities claimed China interfered in two federal elections.

However, Carney is adopting a different path amid tensions with US President Donald Trump, who announced he would be hiking tariffs on Canadian goods by an additional 10% and terminated all trade talks following what he called a “fake” anti-tariff ad campaign.

(with inputs from agencies)