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Summary Report: Canada-India Track 1.5 Dialogue on Critical Minerals & Supply Chain Resilience

Vina Nadjibulla, Erin Williams
December 16, 2025
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This strategic dialogue was convened on November 24, 2025, in New Delhi, India, by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, in partnership with the Ananta Aspen Centre and the High Commission of Canada in India.

This Track 1.5 strategic dialogue took place at a pivotal moment in Canada–India relations. In the preceding months, the two countries had held several high-level meetings — including two meetings between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney within six months — and announced a series of initiatives aimed at stabilizing and rebuilding the bilateral relationship. Together, these developments have created new momentum around trade, investment, technology, and economic security co-operation.

Key Takeaways from the Strategic Dialogue:

  • Move from frameworks to projects. Canada–India co-operation on critical minerals will succeed only if it shifts from broad statements of intent to a small number of well-resourced, commercially viable pilot projects. Participants cautioned against over-reliance on new frameworks without clear delivery mechanisms.
     
  • Co-operation on critical minerals should be framed as an economic security priority for both countries, linking clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and defence-adjacent technologies to long-term supply-chain resilience.
     
  • Leverage complementarity and avoid duplication. Canada and India should avoid replicating China’s state-driven model. Instead, they should build a “market-plus” partnership combining Canadian upstream production and technology with Indian midstream processing, refining, and manufacturing capacity.
     
  • Use state tools to crowd in private capital. Long timelines, price volatility, and technology risk require targeted interventions such as offtake-backed finance, sovereign equity participation, investment guarantees, and regulatory fast-tracking.
     
  • Pick priority minerals and deliver early wins. Lithium, nickel, copper, and selected rare earths emerged as logical starting points based on demand outlook, existing capabilities, and policy tailwinds such as India’s tariff reforms.
     
  • Institutionalize partnerships. The proposed Critical Minerals Annual Dialogue at PDAC 2026 should be paired with a standing working group focused on project identification, regulatory alignment, and financing solutions.
     
  • Deepen subnational engagement. Provinces in Canada and states in India control key aspects of permitting, infrastructure, and industrial policy. Targeted province–state linkages can unlock practical co-operation faster than federal-only approaches.
     
  • Invest in joint R&D and skills. Connecting Canadian universities and labs with Indian institutions such as Councils of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) can accelerate innovation in extraction, processing, recycling, and ESG performance, while workforce development and training can strengthen long-term capacity.
     
  • Strengthen investor confidence through an early conclusion of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Investor protection and predictability — including dispute resolution and clearer rules — were seen as critical for unlocking institutional capital, including pension funds, and enabling sustained private-sector collaboration.

Vina Nadjibulla

Vina is APF Canada's Vice-President Research & Strategy and leads the Foundation’s research, education, and network support activities. She also oversees the Foundation’s granting and research fellowships programs as well as development and capacity building projects. She is a frequent media commentator on geopolitics, Canadian foreign policy, and Canada-Asia relations, with a focus on India and China.

As an international security and peacebuilding specialist, Vina has more than two decades of professional experience in high-level diplomacy, advocacy, policy-making, and political risk analysis. From war zones to board rooms, Vina has worked with national governments, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations in Canada, the United States, China, and a number of countries in Africa and Central Asia.

Vina Nadjibulla's latest posts:

2025 Year in Review: 5 Things We Learned About Asia and Canada What Trump’s New National Security Strategy Means for Canada’s China Policy and Indo-Pacific Engagement Indo-Pacific Forum 2025: Charting Canada’s Next Phase of Regional Engagement Read more >

Erin Williams

Erin is Director, Programs, at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where she oversees programs related to Asia competencies and education and spearheads the Foundation’s Canada-Asia Young Professionals Development program. 

Prior to joining APF Canada, Erin supported the Canadian Member Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), a regional Track II security dialogue. In that role, she assisted with two Canada co-chaired study groups: one on regional peacekeeping and peace-building, and another on the responsibility to protect (R2P). She also was Associate Editor (with Brian Job) of CSCAP’s annual flagship publication, The CSCAP Regional Security Outlook. Erin has worked as an Editorial Assistant at Pacific Affairs and in the field of immigrant and refugee education in Minnesota and California.

Erin has a master’s degree in Asia Pacific Policy Studies from the University of British Columbia and a master’s degree in International Relations from Boston University.

Erin Williams's latest posts:

Indo-Pacific Forum 2025: Charting Canada’s Next Phase of Regional Engagement Summary Report: Canada–India Track II Dialogue: Strengthening the Strategic Partnership and Building Resilience Together China, Russia Remain Close Despite Trump’s Efforts to Drive a Wedge Read more >

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