Ottawa managed back-to-back visits by ministers from India and China this week, a previously unthinkable milestone in Canada’s Indo-Pacific engagement.
Piyush Goyal, India’s commerce and industry minister, visited Canada from Monday to Wednesday. China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, arrives today, right on Goyal’s heels. The two countries represent one-third of the world’s population and a quarter of global GDP.
One visit — let alone both — would have been out of the question 18 months ago. In late 2024, tariffs, foreign interference, and residual distrust from Beijing’s arbitrary detention of two Canadians marred the Canada–China relationship. Canada–India ties were in free fall, following allegations that agents of the Indian government had been responsible for the killing of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., in 2023.
These issues have not disappeared; foreign interference continues, tariffs are merely suspended, and, as an APF Canada poll showed, Canadians still view both countries unfavourably. But Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has sought to bring the temperature down, brokering a full reset with India and selectively engaging with China to reduce dependence on the U.S.
New era with New Delhi
India's largest-ever trade delegation of more than 100 business leaders accompanied Goyal on the visit, evidence of the trip's ‘business-first' framing.
Bilateral talks in Ottawa and Toronto focused on technology, clean energy, and critical minerals, all sectors aligned with Carney's domestic ‘economic resilience’ agenda.
Goyal and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand “underscored the strong potential for Canada and India to advance a mutually beneficial partnership,” according to Ottawa. Goyal also met with Carney, International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Heath MacDonald.
During Carney’s visit to New Delhi earlier this year, both sides agreed to finalize a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement by the end of 2026. Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are also aiming to boost trade to C$70 billion over the next five years. Despite strong people-to-people ties, education links, and growing convergence around supply chains, energy, and technology, Canada–India trade totalled a modest C$30.63 billion in 2025.
Wang visit a decade in the making
China’s Wang Yi meets with Anand today in the first bilateral visit to Canada by a Chinese foreign minister since June 2016. They’re expected to discuss the new Canada–China strategic partnership, trade and investment, global security, and bilateral issues.
After years of tensions, Canada’s challenge now is to build predictable, selective engagement with China without turning that engagement into strategic vulnerability. China remains a major commercial market for Canada: Canadian merchandise exports to China reached C$34.9 billion in 2025, a 14.9 per cent increase compared to 2024. Total two-way trade hit C$125.1 billion in 2025.
Guardrails around sensitive technologies, investment, electric vehicles, critical minerals, forced labour, Taiwan, and foreign interference will remain central to how Canada manages the relationship. CSIS’s Annual Report 2025, released this month, noted that “the main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage against Canada remained the People’s Republic of China, India, [and] the Russian Federation.” China’s embassy in Ottawa said the report “slanders and smears China, [...] pure fabrication and has no credibility whatsoever.”
Conservative MP Michael Chong’s trip to Taiwan last week is another case in point. Chong travelled to Taipei to show “solidarity’ and underscore that MPs “do not take direction from a foreign government [Beijing] as to where they travel.” China’s embassy in Ottawa said that his visit crossed “a red line.” Moreover, China’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, told The Globe and Mail in April that Canadian vessels should cease transiting the Taiwan Strait; any future transits will be closely watched by Beijing and Canada’s allies in the region.
