NEW DELHI: India and Canada are likely to sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by the end of this year, Canadian PM Mark Carney said in Mumbai ahead of his arrival in Delhi for a bilateral meeting with PM Narendra Modi on Monday. In Mumbai, Carney had several business engagements, meeting Indian and Canadian CEOs, industry and financial experts, innovators, educators as well as Canadian Pension Funds based in India.“This is an enormous opportunity for both our countries… but it is one that is about to move to the next level. We should aim much higher, and we are aiming much higher, and to be more strategic in our partnership. And that’s why, immediately after my election last year, our govt set out to renew our relationship with India,” he said in India’s financial capital, during the first leg of his first official visit to India.Modi and Carney had agreed on the margins of the G7 summit in Canada to restart efforts to pave the way for a free trade agreement. Apart from the expected progress in CEPA negotiations, a multi-billion-dollar agreement for procurement of uranium by India from Canada is likely to be one of the major takeaways from the visit.“I invited PM Modi to the G7 Summit in Canada. When he came a few weeks later, we agreed to re-engage across security, energy and technology. A few months later, at the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, PM Modi and I launched a landmark partnership with Australia on critical minerals and technology,” Carney said.Modi and Carney are also likely to discuss the fallout of the war in West Asia. Unlike India, Canada has backed the US’s action against Iran’s nuclear programme.During this visit, Canada is focused on core areas where it can work together with India to create greater sovereignty, greater choice and greater prosperity for our people, Carney said. “That naturally begins with food and energy, given Canada’s position as a food and energy superpower,” he said, adding that it also extended to nuclear cooperation, from being the most reliable long-term supplier of uranium for building large-scale reactors and small modular reactors.
