Bilateral trade is expected to reach $50 billion by 2030, says Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he hosts his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney in New Delhi.
Published March 2, 2026
India and Canada will try to conclude a free trade pact by the end of this year, says Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, as the two countries look to boost economic ties after two years of a strained relationship.
Speaking after talks with Carney, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that the two countries would soon finalize a “comprehensive economic partnership” that is expected to boost bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030 from nearly $9 billion in 2024-25.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
India and Canada began moving forward in negotiations on a long-pending trade deal last year. Carney said the two sides aimed to conclude the deal before the end of the year.
“This is not simply the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valuable partnership with new ambition, focus and vision for the future,” he said on his first official trip to New Delhi.
The two sides also agreed to a uranium deal worth $2.6 billion and will work on building small modular nuclear reactors and advanced reactors.
“In civil nuclear energy, we have concluded a historic deal for long-term uranium supply,” Modi said.
The Indian government and Canada’s Cameco have signed a uranium supply agreement to support India’s nuclear ambitions and work towards a clean and reliable baseload, Carney added.
The two countries will also work to strengthen defense industries and improve maritime domain awareness, Modi said.
Carney’s four-day visit to India is a key step in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused Modi’s government of orchestrating a deadly campaign against suspected Sikh separatist activists in Canada, accusations New Delhi rejected as “absurd.”
The dispute deepened and led to expulsions of diplomats and the freezing of trade negotiations.
“There has been more engagement between the governments of Canada and India in the last year than in more than two decades combined,” Carney said in a speech alongside Modi.
“This is not simply the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valuable partnership with new ambition, focus and vision for the future, a partnership between two confident countries charting our own course for the future.”
Both India and Canada are seeking to diversify trade away from the United States due to tariff announcements and deepen cooperation in areas such as clean energy, critical minerals and agricultural value chains.
India sealed a “free trade pact” with the European Union in January, while it recently paused negotiations with the United States on a proposed deal, hoping to resume them “once” there is greater clarity following U.S. President Donald Trump’s invalidation of tariffs.
