Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand will meet with Indian officials in New Delhi and Mumbai from October 12–13 ahead of a one-day stay in China and then Singapore, setting up a key week for Canadian diplomacy in Asia.
The last time a Canadian foreign minister travelled to India was in February 2023. Since then, bilateral ties have bounced from good to bad to ugly, now settling into an encouraging ‘reset,’ with plenty of progress made in the last six months alone. Participants at a recent ‘Track 2 dialogue’ on Canada–India relations, hosted by APF Canada in Ottawa on October 3, noted a “significant improvement” in bilateral ties.
There’s been momentum on bilateral security issues, but both sides still need to progress on economic and commercial relations, particularly critical minerals, agricultural trade, and — down the road — the state of long-paused FTA talks. Reviving trade discussions, first initiated in 2010, would likely bolster Canadian business confidence in India.
Both Canada and India face a newfound urgency to diversify trade and investment ties. New Delhi is wasting no time: a trade deal between India and the EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) entered into force this month. Canada and Indonesia, meanwhile, signed a bilateral trade deal in September.
Anand’s upcoming visit builds on trips last month to India by Canada’s deputy foreign affairs minister and the prime minister’s national security and intelligence adviser, as well as a meeting between Anand and her Indian counterpart in New York City.
Her talks in China will likely centre around resolving trade irritants, including China’s tariffs on a swath of Canadian canola and seafood products. Anand has said that Ottawa will “co-operate with China where we can, but challenge them where we must."
In Singapore on October 15, Anand will formally open APF Canada’s Asia Regional Office.
