 "Why PM Modi’s invite to G7 in Canada is important")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to attend the G7 Summit in Canada at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The summit, which begins today (June 16) in Alberta, is set to conclude tomorrow (June 17).
While India is not a member of the G7, New Delhi has been consistently invited to attend the grouping’s meetings since 2019.
“As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigor, guided by mutual respect and shared interests. Look forward to our meeting at the summit,” Modi said in a statement.
But why is Modi’s invite to attend the G7 in Canada significant?
Let’s take a closer look:
India’s growing importance in the world and Canada
The invite reflects India’s growing importance to the world.
Carney himself made mention of the fact.
“India is the fifth-largest economy in the world, the most populous country in the world and central to supply chains,” Carney said. “I extended the invitation to Prime Minister Modi and, in that context, he has accepted”.
The G7 is also set to discuss several important issues including artificial intelligence and climate change.
It is “hard to have those discussions without India”, Carney added.
India and Canada are also important to each other.
New Delhi is Ottawa’s 10th largest trading partner.
Even as ties deteriorated between the two countries, India and Canada’s bilateral trade in goods touched $9.8 billion in 2024.
That figure was around $8.2 billion from January 2023 to October 2023 and just $6.9 billion in 2022.
India in 2024 exported $5.9 billion worth of goods to Canada and imported around $3.9 billion, as per government data.
India’s exports to Canada in 2023 (January to October) was $4.1 billion and $3.76 billion in 2022.
Vina Nadjibulla, Vice President of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said the decision wasn’t Canada’s alone.
“In terms of the G7, we are the outlier because the other six members of the G7 are interested in deepening their strategic partnerships with India, deepening their defence technology and economic ties. In fact, every day there is a new announcement about either France or UK or US doing more with India,” Nadjibulla told CBC News Network.
“So having India there also matters to everybody else. I think there was a strong push from other G6 to have India at the table. And I think in order for Canada also to be able to show relevance on the world stage, we can’t just engage in diplomacy with those whom we like. I mean, this is not… diplomacy is not a gift to our friends. It’s not a concession. It’s a necessary tool to be able to advance our interests and defend our values, right?”
Rebuilding relations
The development comes as India and Canada look to rebuild relations under Carney.
Ties between the two countries had hit a nadir under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau had accused India of having a hand in the killing of Sikh terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 – allegations New Delhi had termed “absurd and preposterous”.
Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.
Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Nijjar’s murder.
India on the other hand had accused Canada of giving shelter to Sikh separatists and the other radical elements.
The two sides had expelled each other’s diplomats in 2023 and 2024.
However, Trudeau is now out of the government.
Meanwhile, Carney has spoken repeatedly of how he wants to improve ties with ‘like-minded nations’ like India and how it of it is a priority of his government.
Carney said there is a legal process underway in the killing of the Canadian Sikh activist and said he would not comment on the case.
“There is a legal process that is literally underway and quite advanced in Canada… It’s never appropriate to make comments with respect to those legal processes,” Carney said.
Ajay Bisaria, India’s former high commissioner to Canada, said this is an opportunity to set the partnership on the right footing.
“It always presents a strategic opportunity for Modi to discuss the global commons like climate, trade, supply chains and the broader development agenda with the developed world,” Bisaria told DW.
The G7 gathering presents “a diplomatic opportunity to present India’s current concerns to key world leaders, while China and Pakistan are out of the room.”
What do experts say?
Experts are upbeat about this move from Carney.
Meera Shankar, a former Indian envoy to the US, said the visit will “hopefully mark the beginning of a reset in India’s relations with Canada, which have plummeted in recent years over the Canadian allegations on the Nijjar case and India’s belief that Canada indulges Sikh extremism directed against India.”
She said both sides win “if the relationship is stabilised, especially in a volatile world.”
As David Mckinnon, a former Canadian diplomat, told DW, “The politics of this decision in Canada, and particularly within the Liberal Party, were not easy, but Carney made the right choice. It’s also notable that the leader of the opposition, Pierre Poilievre, quickly welcomed it”.
But Mckinnon cautioned against reading too much into it.
“A big outstanding question is whether this trip leads to a mutually agreeable off-ramp from the allegations of Indian government interference in Canada, including involvement in the Nijjar murder, and India’s allegations about Khalistani activities in Canada,” Mckinnon added.
But not everyone is happy with the invite.
Balpreet Singh, legal counsel and spokesperson for the World Sikh Organisation of Canada, called Carney’s invitation to Modi a “betrayal of Canadian values.”
“The summit to which Mr. Modi is being invited falls on the anniversary of the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar two years ago,” he said. “So for us, this is unacceptable, it’s shocking and it’s a complete reversal of the principled stand that Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau had taken.”
Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil.
In 2023 US prosecutors said an Indian government official directed a failed plot to assassinate another Sikh separatist leader in New York.
With inputs from agencies
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