Can India reset Canada stressful relations? – DW – 06/13/2025

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Canada next week, when he was invited by his Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney to participate in a group of seven (G7) leaders Summit, from June 15 to June 17, in Kananskis, Alberta.

Carney increased the invitation to the Indian premiere despite stressful relations between the two countries.

India is not a member of the G7, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

But New Delhi has been invited to the group’s summit since 2019, which reflects India’s growing geopolitical and economic importance.

“India is the fifth largest economy in the world, which is the most populous country in the world and central to supply chain,” Carney told the media last week.

This will be Modi’s first visit to Canada since 2015.

Modi said in a statement, “Lively democracy, India and Canada will work with a renewed strength, directed by mutual respect and shared interests. The summit is ready for our meeting at the summit,” Modi said in a statement.

Chance to reset relationships?

Political analysts in India have said that Modi’s visit will give a chance to reset relations with Canada.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated as Canada has completed the murder of 45 -year -old natural Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nizar on agents associated with the Government of India.

New Delhi has dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and “predecessor”.

Punjab is in the line of India-Canada on Sikh murder

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India-Canada formed relations in such a way that the two sides expelled each other’s diplomats in 2023 and 2024.

But as the Prime Minister of Canada in March, Carney has expected a melting in relations since the change of Justin Trudeau.

Meera Shankar, a former US envoy, said that Modi’s visit would mark the onset of a reset in India’s relations with Canada, which is directed to Canadian allegations in recent years and India directed to India. “

He insisted that both sides have to achieve a lot “if the relationship is stable, distinctive in an unstable world.”

India and Canada share strong trade and people’s relations with people, with bilateral commerce about $ 9 billion in 2023 and Canadian pension funds have invested around 55 billion in India.

Canada is a home of about 2 million members of the Indian Diaspora, which makes about 5% of the total population of the country. Therefore, the North American nation is a top destination for Indian students pursuing higher education along with the United States.

Equal effect on unresolved issues and relationships

Despite both New Delhi and Ottawa, to try to fix the relationship, there is a unresolved investigation into Nijar’s murder.

In addition, Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh Diaspora community with around 800,000 people.

The community consists of activists for “Khalistan”, who demand a separate movement demanding an independent state for Sikh religious minorities excluded from Indian territory.

New Delhi has demanded strict action against the Khalistan movement, which has been banned in India.

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On the other hand, Canada has accused India of carrying out a comprehensive campus targeting Sikh workers on Canadian land, which Ottawa says that there is intimidation, threats and violence.

Against this background, Modi’s invitation by Carney of Carney strongly criticized the fringe Canadian Sikh groups. Protests are expected during Modi’s visit.

Nevertheless, Canadian diplomat, David McCinone believes that Carney took the right decision by inviting Modi to the G7 Summit.

He said, “The politics of this decision was not easy in Canada and especially within the Liberal Party, but Carney made the right choice. It is notable that the Leader of the Opposition, Pierre Pilevre quickly welcomed it,” he told DW.

However, McCinone said that it is too early to say that everything has become normal between the two sides.

He said, “One of the great things is whether the visit leads to an off-ramp from the allegations of intervention of the Government of India in Canada, including Nijar murder, and involving India’s allegations about Khalistani activities in Canada,” he underlined.

Focus on mutual interests

Last month, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jishkara and his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand spoke on each phone and discussed ways to deepen bilateral economic cooperation and advance shared priorities.

Former Canadian India High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria said that Modi’s presence at the G7 Summit gave an opportunity of stable partnership, focusing economic and geopolitical focus on relations.

“It always presents a strategic opportunity for Modi to discuss global commons such as climate, business, supply chains and broader growth agendas with developed world,” said Bisonia.

Relations between Canada and India hit rock bottom

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He stressed so much that the meeting wants that after a deadly attacks in India-prasaded Kashmir, pointing to the recent clashes between the two nuclear-city archives, providing an opportunity to call for a difficult currency towards Pakistan.

New Delhi blamed Pakistan for supporting the attackers, a charge by Islamabad.

The G7 assembly “presents a diplomatic opportunity for prominent world leaders to present India’s current concerns, while China and Pakistan are out of the room,” said Bisonia.

Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru

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