Signing you in

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may visit Canada before the end of this year to seal the free trade deal which is currently being negotiated, India’s top diplomat in the country said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi in March. (DPR PMO)Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the launch of negotiations towards the comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA when they met in New Delhi in March during the latter’s first bilateral visit to India.

Two rounds of negotiations have concluded and the third will commence in the weeks ahead in Ottawa.

Dates for Modi’s visit are under discussion, India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Dinesh Patnaik told HT: “We are expecting him by the end of the year or by the beginning of next year.”

When the visit does occur, it will be the first standalone bilateral visit by the Indian PM to Canada since April 2015, when Stephen Harper led Canada. Modi never visited the country during Justin Trudeau’s decade-long tenure as Canada’s PM. Modi came to the country in June last year for the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis to which he was invited by Carney. That invitation and their meeting on the margins of the summit at the Alberta resort spurred the reset in bilateral ties.

Also Read: Indian envoy refutes report on criticising Canadian security establishment as ‘compromised’

Patnaik was at a reception organised by the Canada-India Foundation for visiting commerce Piyush Goyal in Toronto on Wednesday evening.

Addressing the gathering, Goyal said, “We have had a serious political reset in our relationship. We are both vibrant democracies who believe in the rule of law. We have the confidence we will not be wrong, either in Canada or in India, justice shall remain, whatever be the circumstances.” It was his last engagement in Canada before he travelled to the US on Wednesday night.

Goyal met Carney in Ottawa on Monday, where the latter sought an accelerated timeline for the conclusion of CEPA negotiations, wanting the talks to conclude by November-end.

If that comes about, it will set the stage for Modi’s visit to finalise the deal with Carney.

Patnaik described Goyal’s visit as “extremely successful”, but stressed what was more important were “the signals” that were sent of the “complete reset of relationship”.

Between June and the end of this year, there will be continuing traffic at the highest levels between the two countries, with several cabinet ministers from both sides expected to travel to strengthen sectoral ties.