Further to CA’s previous update, Prime Minister Carney and Indian Prime Minister Modi, announced on March 2 a “new partnership” involving a series of multimillion-dollar deals and a commitment to sign a free trade agreement by year’s end. In a statement to reporters, Carney said Canada is going all-in on diversifying trade and that the two countries have set a goal to more than double two-way trade to some $70 billion a year by 2030.
Canada continues a push to reduce its dependence on the U.S. and Carney framed this new course as an ambitious revisioning of what the two Commonwealth countries can do together in an uncertain era marked by instability. The two sides hope to sign by December the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (free trade deal) which will offer Canada exports relief from Indian tariffs that are quite high on some goods.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, there has been more engagement between the Canadian and Indian governments this year than there has been in any year of the past two decades. That paved the way for what Carney and Modi signed: five memorandums of understanding expanding Canada-India partnership across energy and critical minerals, technology and AI, talent, culture and defence worth $5.5 billion in total.
Perhaps the most significant is a $2.6 billion deal between the Government of India and Saskatoon-based Cameco to supply nearly 22 million pounds of uranium for nuclear energy generation from 2027 to 2035. That’s a big boon for Saskatchewan, which sits on one of the world’s largest reserves of high-grade uranium.
Full details can be found HERE.
