Exclusive-Carney likely to visit India in early March as Canada trade pivot intensifies, envoy says

By Promit Mukherjee

OTTAWA, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely visit India the first week of March and sign deals on uranium, energy, minerals and artificial intelligence, Dinesh Patnaik, India’s High Commissioner to Canada said in an interview. 

Carney is making all-out efforts to diversify Canada’s alliances beyond the U.S., its top trade partner. In Davos last week, he earned a rare standing ovation for saying the old rules-based order is over and called on middle powers like Canada to build coalitions to shape a fairer, more resilient world. 

His viral speech followed an agreement with China to slash tariffs on electric vehicles and canola and open up to C$7 billion ($5.11 billion) in export markets as he tries to double non-U.S. exports over the next decade.

Carney is also resetting relations with India after his predecessor Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in 2023. India has denied those claims.    

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Group of 7 summit on Carney’s invitation last year and several of Carney’s ministers have traveled to India.

“I have a feeling in the first week of March is what we are looking at,” said High Commissioner Patnaik on Carney’s visit during a weekend interview.

Carney’s office declined to comment. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday Carney would visit Australia in March to address parliament. 

Canada’s Energy Minister Tim Hodgson is visiting India this week and said the timing of Carney’s trip was not yet set.

“There are plans for the Prime Minister to visit at some point this year, it will depend on the progress we make,” Hodgson said in a Sunday interview.

Formal negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India should also start in March, Patnaik said. The countries agreed to restart stalled trade talks in November.

Carney will sign smaller agreements with the Indian government on nuclear energy, oil and gas, the environment, AI and quantum computing as well as deals on education and culture during his visit, Patnaik said. 

A 10-year C$2.8 billion uranium supply deal is likely to be included, he added. 

Hodgson did not confirm the deal, but said Canada is happy to sell uranium under the Canada-India nuclear cooperation agreement as long as India is prepared to abide by International Energy Agency safeguards.

“We know that India is a major nuclear country and it has major plans to grow its civilian use of nuclear energy,” Hodgson said. “So that would be one of the topics I expect that we will discuss with my counterpart.”

Between Hodgson’s visit and Carney’s, both countries will be announcing  agreements around energy and mining, Patnaik said, adding that a pact on critical minerals and crude and LNG transactions will be the most prominent ones. 

“We need to focus on economies that are large and growing. India squarely falls into that category. India is a growing user of critical minerals that Canada can supply,” Hodgson said.

SENSE OF URGENCY

Both countries are moving with a sense of urgency after two years of stalled talks, and a renewed impetus to move fast to make sure countries hit by U.S. tariffs forge their own path, Patnaik said.

“Now we are living in a world where the natural rules-based order which gave a certainty to the world is not functioning,” he said, referring to Carney’s speech at Davos. 

“(We) should work together to have an agreement that protects us from the vagaries of the international order,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100% tariffs on Canada if it signed a deal with China. 

Carney responded that Canada respects its commitments under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to not pursue free trade agreements with non market economies. 

Patnaik said India is also seeking new agreements.

India and the EU are expected to announce on Tuesday the conclusion of protracted negotiations for a free trade pact.

Within a year of starting formal negotiations with Canada, a CEPA pact could be signed, Patnaik added. 

India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are also likely to visit Canada very soon, he said. 

Patnaik said that there is a court case ongoing in Canada on four people accused of the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. If evidence comes out that there were Indians involved, India will take action, he said.

He said India’s National Security Advisor will visit Ottawa next month as part of regular engagements between the two countries to exchange intelligence and discuss security measures.

($1 = 1.3699 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Additional reporting by Divya Rajagopal; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and David Gregorio)