3 min readFeb 28, 2026 06:24 AM IST First published on: Feb 28, 2026 at 06:21 AM ISTBy Amen Naithani and Elizabeth RocheCanadian PM Mark Carney’s visit to India this week is expected to place the bilateral relationship — which touched a nadir in 2023 with Ottawa accusing New Delhi of being involved in the murder of a Canadian national — on a more stable footing. The logic for the reset in India-Canada ties was outlined by Carney himself in a speech at the WEF in Davos in January: “The middle powers must act together, because if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” Amid cracks in the global order, Ottawa has pivoted from a “laid-back” observer to a vocal protagonist, aggressively courting new alliances in the Indo-Pacific to absorb the shocks delivered by President Donald Trump to the once unified West.AdvertisementCanada’s transformation also comes at a critical time for India, which is looking to diversify its partnerships. What will prove helpful is Carney’s economic expertise. With Canada looking for new markets to replace the business opportunities lost in the US, Carney should look at India, with a middle class comparable in numbers to the entire US population, as an economic opportunity, replacing surface-level engagements with deep-rooted linkages. In September 2023, ties hit a historic low when then PM Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indian-origin Canadian Sikh. The result was a total diplomatic freeze that lasted nearly two years. But ahead of the visit, Ottawa concluded that India was not involved in violent criminal activity on Canadian soil.A quiet, constructive meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Carney at the G7 summit in Kananaskis in June 2025, followed by deeper and longer bilateral meetings at the G20 in Johannesburg in November 2025, set the stage for a reset. Incidentally, bilateral goods trade grew to roughly $13.3 billion in 2024, despite the chill in relations. During Carney’s visit, both are expected to conclude a $2.8-billion deal for uranium supplies to India for a decade. For an India aiming to massively expand its civilian nuclear energy capacity, Canadian uranium is a necessity. The official reboot of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations is also on the cards. CEPA has the ambitious goal of doubling bilateral trade to $60 billion by 2030.That being said, challenges remain. The deep-seated disagreements that triggered the 2023 crisis have not vanished; they have simply been moved to a different track. But the diplomatic channels are back at work along with the reinstatement of the high commissioners. NSA Ajit Doval’s visit to Ottawa earlier this month ensured the delicate balance: Security dialogues run parallel to economic progress, rather than impeding it. Doval and his counterpart, Nathalie G Drouin, agreed to a “shared work plan” to guide cooperation. The real anchor of this relationship remains the people. With nearly 4,30,000 Indian students in Canada and a diaspora that is deeply integrated into the Canadian political and economic fabric, the people-to-people ties were always too strong to snap. They are the reason why, even at the height of the freeze, the two nations never stopped talking entirely.AdvertisementNaithani is research associate, CSDR, and Roche is associate professor, O P Jindal Global University