PM Modi is visiting Canada i December: Carney reveals why this trip is 'exceptionally important'

New York: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday (September 22, local time) said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada in December as the two countries look to lock in the trade deal by the end of this year.

Carney said the two countries are looking to reach a trade deal by the end of the year and described the relation with India as being 'exceptionally important'.

"We are making good progress in our trade negotiations with India. It is an exceptionally important relationship, on many, many levels. People-to-people levels, security levels and also trade and economic. He (PM Modi) will be visiting Canada around that time. I very much look forward to hosting him," the Canadian PM said in a news briefing on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York.

Canada under PM Carney’s leadership reopened trade talks with India during the G20 summit in 2025 as both countries saw a thaw in diplomatic relations post the standoff with former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau who had blamed India for the killing of designated terrorist Hardeep Nijjar in Canada.

The government also stepped up its engagement with Canada during the G20 summit last year as part of its effort to reduce economic reliance on the increasingly volatile US administration.

The Canadian side has said a deal with India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, could double Canada-India trade to $70 billion.

Earlier on September 21, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that India and Canada have agreed to fast-track negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with the next round of talks scheduled to begin on October 5.

Goyal said he had concluded the fourth round of negotiations for the proposed trade agreement with his Canadian counterpart, Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu, in Mumbai last week.

"I have concluded the fourth round of negotiations for the Canada trade deal with my counterpart Mr Maninder Sidhu in Mumbai on Friday. Very productive discussions and both sides have resolved to fast-track negotiations, in view of which our team is now slated to go for the fifth round," he said.

The minister said the fifth round would begin on October 5 and noted that the pace of the negotiations was increasing.

"Fifth of October. So you can see that as the progress is taking shape, the speed of negotiations with Canada is also improving. Let's see, the next 90 days should be a very defining period in the Canada-India relationship," the minister said.

The latest round follows a renewed push by the two countries to conclude a comprehensive trade agreement. Canada had said ahead of Sidhu's September 18-19 visit to Mumbai that three rounds of the fresh CEPA negotiations had been completed and that both sides shared the objective of concluding negotiations by the end of 2026.

India and Canada have discussed a comprehensive trade pact for more than a decade. Negotiations were formally relaunched in March 2022, with the two sides also pursuing an Early Progress Trade Agreement as an interim step. Nine negotiating rounds were held between 2022 and 2023 before the process was paused in August 2023 amid a period of strain in bilateral relations.

Trade engagement gathered momentum again in 2025. The two countries subsequently launched a fresh CEPA process, with Goyal and Sidhu signing the Terms of Reference on March 2, 2026, during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to India.

Both governments committed to seeking conclusion of the negotiations by the end of 2026.Bilateral trade between India and Canada stood at around USD 8 billion in FY 2025-26, with India exporting goods worth USD 4.67 billion and importing USD 3.28 billion, according to the Commerce Ministry.