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LIVE updates: While discussing various issues of importance, Canadian business leaders believed that reforms like GST have helped in making India a good prospect for Canadian businesses. The Indo-Canadian Business Chamber-hosted business forum has begun. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to attend an armchair discussion session at 3 am.
Meanwhile, Trudeau began his day with meeting Tata Sons CEO N Chandrasekharan at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal hotel. He is set to spend most of his day at the iconic Colaba hotel.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who arrived in Mumbai on Monday, will on Tuesday meet industry leaders. According to the itinerary posted on Trudeau’s official website , the Canadian prime minister will be meeting N Chandrasekharan of Tata Sons at 9 am before holding discussions with Infosys CEO Salil Parekh and Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra. Trudeau is also expected to meet Jubilant Bhartia Group’s Hari Bhartia, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Shapoorji Pallonji Group board member, Cyrus Mistry.
Later in the day, Trudeau is also expected to address a roundtable of women business leaders and attend the India-Canada Business Forum at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. At 4 pm, he is expected to meet Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis before ending the day by meeting Bollywood celebrities at a private event.
Trudeau and Amarinder to meet on Wednesday
Trudeau is all set to meet Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh during the former’s visit to Amritsar on Wednesday. Trudeau will offer prayers at the Golden Temple complex, where the holiest of Sikh shrines ‘Harmandir Sahib’ is located. The visit is of political and social significance in Canada as that country has a substantial Indian diaspora, a majority of them being from Punjab.
Amarinder on Monday said that he was looking forward to the “one-on-one” meeting with the Canadian prime minister. “Look forward to taking Punjab’s close business as well as people-to-people relations with Canada to the next level, with a one-to-one meeting with visiting Canadian prime minister in Amritsar on Wednesday,” Amarinder said.
The chief minister, who has already issued instructions to the state administration to roll out the red carpet for the visiting dignitary’s visit, said on Monday that he looked forward to the meeting.
There was uncertainty over Amarinder’s meeting with Trudeau as the Punjab chief minister had last year courted controversy when he had refused to meet Canadian defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan, the first Sikh defence minister of a western country, during a visit to Punjab in April last year. Amarinder had gone public to label Sajjan and other ministers of Indian origin in the Trudeau government as “Khalistani sympathisers”.
In a change of tone now, Amarinder expressed the hope that his meeting with Trudeau would help strengthen the bilateral relations in the context of the diaspora.
While trade and business will be the key focus area of the meeting, the two leaders are also expected to discuss steps to intensify the close relations between the people of the two countries, according to a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
Punjab has deep roots in Canada, where a large Punjabi community is settled and has always striven to strengthen the connection, Amarinder Singh said and expressed appreciation for Trudeau’s efforts in this direction.
Citing Trudeau’s apology two years ago in the Canadian parliament for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which hundreds of Sikh, Muslim and Hindu passengers in a ship were denied entry to Canada and forced to return to India, where they met a violent fate, he said it was a gesture that underlined the depth of the relations between the two countries, which Wednesday’s meeting would help in consolidating further.
Protocol was extended to Trudeau, says MEA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi not receiving Trudeau at the airport, a courtesy he extended to some world leaders in the past, has triggered speculation in Canada that it was a snub to him for the rising Sikh radicalism in that country. However, government sources strongly rejected the speculation, insisting normal diplomatic protocol has been extended to Trudeau.
They also expressed surprise over the Canadian side preferring to schedule Trudeau’s official engagements in Delhi at the fag end of the tour as against the normal practice of having bilateral meetings during the first part of such visits. The sources said it is quite unusual for a visiting dignitary to slot important talks towards the end of a visit, besides setting aside little time for official engagements. Trudeau will hold bilateral talks with Modi on Friday, a day before he wraps up his tour.
With inputs from agencies