Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Canadian Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne on Friday (August 28, 2026) issued a joint statement that reiterated the two countries’ commitment to conclude the India-Canada trade deal by the end of 2026.
“We would like more of them to be here with us because, since 2020, just before COVID-19 started, we put out a complete list of the national pipeline for asset monetisation in India. It added that, during the Dialogue, the Ministers discussed the mutual benefits of further strengthening bilateral economic and investment ties, to support financial and commercial linkages between India and Canada and support the two Prime Ministers’ shared aspiration to expand bilateral trade to ₹4.65 lakh crore by 2030 from the ₹70,354 crore in 2025-26.
The joint statement also said that India had expressed its readiness to begin negotiations on a Bilateral Investment Treaty “at the earliest”. The statement also said that “India expressed its readiness to initiate negotiations on a Bilateral Investment Treaty at the earliest”. “The Ministers explored opportunities for deeper collaboration on a range of financial-sector issues, including payments modernisation, financial stability, FinTech innovation, capital markets development and efforts to address financial crime,” the statement said. “The Canadian pension fund has been very much engaged with India,” she noted during the press conference.
The statement followed the conclusion of the inaugural India-Canada Finance Ministers’ Economic and Financial Dialogue in Toronto. The two Ministers also discussed ways to facilitate greater engagement between Indian and Canadian financial institutions and institutional investors and to explore commercially viable investment opportunities across sectors of mutual interest. And that has become a very growing pipeline of investment opportunities for those who are seeking higher returns on their investments.”
