Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to Visit India in February

With a key aim of strengthening bilateral partnership between Canada and India, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to visit India from Feb. 17 to 23. Trudeau will make stops at Agra, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Trudeau’s visit comes after an invitation was extended to him by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. Cooperation in security, counter-terrorism as well as exchange of views on global and regional issues of mutual interest are going to be important components of the visit, the statement added.

The 7-day visit is aimed at further strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries in areas of mutual interest, including trade and investment, energy, science and innovation, higher education, infrastructure development, and skill development, according to the Canadian government. Trudeau will speak to students, and visit several landmarks, including the Taj Mahal, the Golden Temple and the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Gujarat, the statement added.

Strong people-to-people connections and presence of a large Indian diaspora in Canada provide a strong foundation for the relationship, it further said. Canada has persons of Indian origin holding offices in the government. At the moment, the Trudeau cabinet has five persons of Indian origin, after with the inclusion of Harjit Sajjan, the first Sikh to be appointed as Canada’s Defense Minister.

The India visit will mark Trudeau’s fourth meeting with Modi. The two leaders met in November 2017 during the East Asia Summit in Manila, Philippines; during the G20 in Hamburg, Germany in July 2017; during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC in April 2016 and during Modi’s first official visit to Canada in April 2015. Back in 2015, Trudeau met him as the leader of the Liberal Party in Toronto. He became the Canadian PM in November 2015.

The bilateral ties between the two nations saw a change of tide in 2013, with the signing of the India-Canada Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, when Canada acknowledged India as a responsible nuclear power. In the ’70s, Canada had stopped exports of uranium and nuclear technology, saying India used it to build a nuclear bomb.

The current trade that exists between Canada and India is worth around $8 billion. Over the last three years, Canadian investments in India have increased by over $15 billion. Canada is also a leading education destination for students, with about 124,000 Indians getting study permits in Canadian universities in 2017.