Defence may play a major role in reset of India-Canada ties| India News
India and Canada have had a strategic partnership for over a decade, a position that has largely remained on paper rather than in practice. That strategic partnership is now also officially acknowledged by the Canadian Government. However, adding the dimension of defence to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to India has the potential to revive efforts to make that a reality.
Four cabinet ministers are accompanying Carney: Foreign minster Anita Anand, finance and national revenue minister, François-Philippe Champagne, international trade minister, Maninder Sidhu and national defence minister, David McGuinty, whose presence indicates the direction in which the relation may progress.
“Canada and India have a strategic partnership already in place. Of course, a lot has changed since then. There’s been ups and downs in the relationship. So this is really more about reviving that, but also putting in place a much more ambitious agenda,” Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, said.
The strategic partnership was initiated when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Canada in April 2015. The joint statement issued with then Canadian PM Stephen Harper stated, “The two Prime Ministers agreed to elevate their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership.”
The foreign and defence ministers of the two countries later participated in a 2+2 dialogue to take the partnership forward, and was formally reiterated in 2018.
But there has been little progress in the defence sector, which could change as Canada unveiled its first Defence Industrial Strategy earlier this month. That strategy has also been woven into Canada’s international trade framework. With negotiations towards the comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA expected during Carney’s visit, the defence sector could prove an important component.
Ajay Bisaria, India’s former high commissioner to Ottawa, said, “We could anticipate agreements on artificial intelligence, uranium supply, critical minerals and defence.”
“Canada is committed to spending five per cent of GDP on defence, which would make it a significant global defence player. It has a strong defence production sector, including strong aerospace tech, sonar, ice-breaker and low-temperature tech. India can gain from cooperation in these sectors,” he added.
India’s current High Commissioner to Ottawa Dinesh Patnaik recently told the Hindustan Times that “defence would be an important aspect which we are looking at.”
“The entire gamut of defence, from strategic to defence production to equipment, etc., we are looking at what we can do together,” he said. That will extend to aerospace and cybersecurity.
Of course, security will also encompass hedging against the United States and the unpredictable tariff regime being imposed by President Donald Trump on India and Canada, with the latter preparing for renegotiation of the Canada-US-Mexico free trade agreement later this year.
“The Canadian Government is doing a lot trying to create confidence that there’s a new regime in town. India’s going to have to be a participant in that process, naturally,” Goly Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada said.
“We could expect a political statement that implies shockproofing the relationship against security issues, transitioning to a constructive rebuilding phase and emphasising solidarity among middle powers. Both countries have converging interests in de-risking away from a volatile US,” Bisaria noted.
Importantly, this will be Carney’s first visit abroad since he made his speech at Davos about the “rupture” of the rules-based world order. In that speech at the World Economic Forum, which garnered plenty of global attention, Carney said Carney this marked the “the beginning of a brutal reality where geopolitics among the great powers is not subject to any constraints.”
He stressed that middle powers were not powerless but had the “capacity to build a new order” embodying their values.
Significantly, Carney’s visit to the Asia-Pacific includes stops in India, Australia and Japan, thereby covering every member of the Quad except the United States.
“So there could be areas to explore here, both on the industrial side, but also more generally, a strategic conversation about maritime security as well as the changing security dynamic in the Indo-Pacific. Canada has an Indo-Pacific strategy. India was identified in that strategy as a critical partner. Canada has advanced discussions around maritime security, maritime domain awareness with other partners in the region, and it will be interesting to see how far those discussions can now proceed with India now that we are in this new moment,” Nadjibulla said.
Of course, the principal message from the visit will be that the reset in relationships is turning to renewal. Relations cratered on September 18, 2023, when then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in the House of Commons that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, three months earlier. India had dismissed those accusations as “absurd” and “motivated.”
Things changed once Carney replaced Trudeau as PM in March last year. The reset came into place when he invited Modi to the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis in June 2025, where they agreed to reinstate High Commissioners in the two capitals. They met again on the margins of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in November and agreed to launch fresh negotiations towards a CEPA. When they meet in India, it will be third bilateral engagement in less than ten months.
Nadjibulla felt “the relationship is moving from just crisis management and a focus on a step-by-step reset to a desire to expand and elevate the partnership.”
Bisaria agreed, as he said, “Both sides appear determined to rebuild a stronger relationship than the one that existed in the last decade, fulfilling the promise of the strategic partnership declared in 2015.”
As the relationship envisaged is full spectrum, defence will be an important component but will depend on the level of trust between the two Governments. “From my perspective, what’s relevant is that this has been put on the agenda, that the defence minister will be travelling. It’s the beginning of a conversation, and it will take time,” Nadjibulla said, even as her organisation has scheduled its track 1.5 discussion on defence industrial cooperation in New Delhi next month, soon after Carney departs India.