Canada’s minister of international trade Maninder Sidhu has underscored his country’s “role as a trusted and reliable long-term economic partner for India.”
They were officially launched when Carney, on his maiden visit to India as PM, held a bilateral with Modi in New Delhi this March. The Canada-India Business Council or C-IBC is playing an integral role in the mission. In trade and investment, we have only scratched the surface of what our two nations can achieve. This is not the finish line. It’s the starting line. Sidhu also visited India in September and was present for the completion of the fourth round of negotiations towards a comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA between the two countries. That readout added they reaffirmed their “commitment to building a forward-looking strategic partnership.
The trade mission, announced in July, is scheduled for October 12 to 16. The fifth round will take place from October 5 to 9. That fresh negotiations towards CEPA will take place was announced when Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Mark Carney met on the margins of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025. That bilateral visit, the first in 10 years by an Indian PM, will be for signing of the CEPA.
Its president and CEO Victor Thomas said, “This month’s Team Canada Trade Mission to India reflects the strength and promise of the India–Canada relationship. “Building on the momentum generated from their meeting in Mumbai last month, the ministers continued to advance Canada-India trade and investment priorities,” the statement noted. “Minister Sidhu emphasised the importance of working toward a mutually beneficial agreement by the end of this year,” the statement said. They met again in June on the he margins of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Evian, France, and “expressed satisfaction” with the progress in the CEPA negotiations, according to a readout from the Canadian PMO at the time. Both leaders said they want talks to conclude by the time the G20 Leaders’ Summit is held in Miami in December.
Modi added in Evian that he will try and visit Canada before the end of this year. Sidhu’s remarks came in a statement issued on Friday by Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry, after he met with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on the margins of the G20 Trade Ministers’ gathering in Milwaukee on Thursday.
