Evian-les-Bains

Indiaand Canada agreed to conclude negotiations for a free trade agreement by the year-end as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney on boosting ties in areas of defence, trade and energy.

Modi and Carney met on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains in eastern France.

"It was a delight to meet Prime Minister Carney on the sidelines of the Evian G7 Summit," Modi said in a post on X. "In less than a year, it is our fourth meeting, indicating our commitment to strong India-Canada ties. We reviewed the full range of relations between our nations, notably the ground covered since we last met," he said.

During the meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed concluding the negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) this year, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

"Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress in negotiations towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and reaffirmed their shared objective of concluding the negotiations in 2026," the MEA said. The two prime ministers welcomed the positive momentum in bilateral relations and noted the progress achieved since Carney's visit to India in March this year, it said.

The two sides also agreed to launch negotiations on a General Security of Information Agreement to deepen defence and security cooperation.

"Both leaders reviewed the excellent progress made in bilateral engagement and discussed ways to build a stronger partnership driven by trade, energy, innovation, education and people-to-people exchanges," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.

Reaffirming their commitment to a "forward-looking strategic partnership", Modi and Carney highlighted the complementarities between the Indian and Canadian economies and underscored the importance of resilient and reliable supply chains for global energy and food security, according to the MEA statement.

The leaders reviewed progress in economic cooperation, including commercial arrangements relating to LNG, LPG and metallurgical coal.

The Canadian prime minister was in India from February 27 to March 2, during which India and Canada sealed key pacts on supplies of Uranium and critical minerals and agreed to conclude a comprehensive economic partnership agreement soon.

At the time, the two prime ministers had also pledged to ramp up cooperation in defence, critical technologies, small and modular nuclear reactors, education and renewable energy. At the meeting on the G7 sidelines, they also welcomed growing institutional engagement, including recent meetings of the Joint Science and Technology Committee and the Consular Dialogue, and looked forward to dialogues in the areas of defence, finance and migration.

The leaders also noted ongoing collaboration under the Canada-India Talent and Innovation Strategy and announced the establishment of Raisina Americas as a platform to further strengthen dialogue, exchanges and cooperation. Modi also expressed support for Canada becoming a Dialogue Partner of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the statement said.

The ties between the two countries hit rock bottom following then-prime minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in 2023 of a potential Indian link to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

The two sides initiated a series of measures to rebuild the relations after Carney became the prime minister in March last year.