Toronto: India and Canada will hold their inaugural Finance Ministers’ Economic and Financial Dialogue in Toronto later this month, Ottawa announced on Friday.
In 2024, total direct and indirect Canadian investment in India surpassed CA$ 110 billion. The Dialogue will be held as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman makes her first visit to Canada since she assumed charge of that portfolio. We are building our economic strength at home and diversifying our partnerships abroad”. India will be a participant at the Canada Investment Summit being hosted by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Toronto next month. “These visits matter: they build real momentum in the corridor, lay the groundwork for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, and set the table for a bilateral visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this year, something we haven’t seen in over a decade. Canadian business leaders will have the opportunity to engage with India’s Finance Minister at exactly the right moment,” Victor Thomas, president and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council pointed out. She pointed to the bilateral when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited New Delhi in March.
To “advance these efforts”, it said, Canada’s Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne, will host his Indian counterpart, the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, in the country on August 26 and 27. “As the world’s fastest-growing major economy, India presents extraordinary opportunities,” the release said, adding that with a population of 1.4 billion, India’s energy demand is increasing faster than anywhere else in the world. “Its economy is scaling in the very areas that define Canada’s strengths: energy, agriculture, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing,” it noted. “As both countries embark on parallel missions to build and transform our respective economies and diversify key supply chains, we are forging ahead in this partnership to leverage each other’s strengths and ambition,” the Department said. Vina Nadjibula, co-founder and CEO of the Centre for Strategic Statecraft, said, “What we are seeing is steady accumulation of progress. He and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “summit established an ambitious agenda; the trade mission and sectoral dialogues are beginning to implement it; CEPA (comprehensive economic partnership agreement) negotiations are advancing; and now finance cooperation is being added to the architecture,” she added.
In a statement issued on Friday, Canada’s Department of Finance said that in “a rapidly changing world, Canada is focused on what we can control.
