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Mark Carney is under mounting pressure to address whether he believes Indian interference in Canada remains a threat after he met with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, whose government is accused of orchestrating the killing a Canadian citizen.
“We are one family,” the Canadian prime minister said from New Delhi on Monday, capping a four day trade-focused trip meant reset relations with the world’s most populous nation.
Carney says he wants to have a free-trade agreement with the world’s fifth biggest economy by the end of this year. The two nations signed a number of memorandums as well as a landmark $2.6bn uranium deal. Canada hopes that two-way trade with India could reach C$70bn by 2030.
Modi praised Carney for working to reset the stalled bilateral relationship and the two announced plans to meet again – in Canada – after Modi accepted Carney’s invitation to visit.
During his visit, Carney reiterated his government’s belief in “principled pragmatism” acknowledging that “not every partner will share all our values”.
A readout after his meeting with Modi, said that Carney “underscored that Canada will continue to take measures to combat” transnational repression. The release did not include additional details.
Carney’s office cancelled a planned press conference Monday, citing the lengthy nature of meetings with Modi’s government and a tight travel schedule to Australia.
The prime minister has yet to answer questions from reporters after a senior official said last week the government was “confident” that India’s campaign of threats and violence had ended, adding that if they had not, Carney and a high-level delegation “wouldn’t be taking this trip”.
Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Anita Anand, told reporters in New Delhi that “the words of the senior official are not words that I personally would use”.
India’s envoy to Ottawa, Dinesh Patnaik, says India never conducted foreign interference in Canada.
Questions over India’s role in the 2023 assassination of Sikh campaigner Hardeep Singh Nijjar came as it was reported that an official in the country’s Vancouver consulate helped supply information on Nijjar.
Police believe the consular employee was also an intelligence officer with India’s external intelligence agency. In June, Canada’s spy agency said Nijjar’s murder signaled a “significant escalation in India’s repression efforts”, reflecting a broader, transnational campaign by Delhi to threaten dissidents.
And in November, the head of Canada’s spy agency said China and India were the main perpetrators of foreign meddling and transnational repression in Canada and as recently as last week, a prominent Sikh activist was warned by police over a credible threat against the lives of his family – a threat he believes came from India.
Liberal MP Ruby Sahota said in a statement that “any suggestion these threats have been resolved does not reflect the current security reality facing Canada”.
