Carney begins Asia tour from India as Ottawa says Canadian Sikhs safe from transnational repression
Canada's PM Mark Carney is travelling to India, Australia, and Japan to expand partnerships in many areas amid tense ties with US. Ottawa says threats originating from India on minority Sikhs will be raised with New Delhi.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is flying to Asia for a three-country tour with a first stop in India, where he hopes to double trade to offset the damage of his country's fracturing relations with the United States.
Canadian officials state the Sikh leader's killing, allegedly ordered by India, and transnational repression will be discussed at the New Delhi talks.
Carney's India visit on Friday marks the latest effort to reset bilateral ties that effectively collapsed after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists on Canadian territory.
For Carney, the trip that includes stops in Australia and Japan is part of a broad effort to pivot the Canadian economy away from excessive reliance on its southern neighbour.
In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade through a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.
So far Trump broadly adhered to the North American free trade agreement he signed during his first term and about 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.
But at the same time, he also imposed painful industry-specific tariffs and there are fears that if he scraps the broader trade deal, the Canadian economy will be hit hard.
Carney has made boosting commerce with Europe and Asia cornerstones of his strategy to backstop Canada's economy, should free trade with Washington collapse.
The prime minister has said he wants to more than double two-way trade with India by 2030, eyeing a target of $51 billion by 2030.
Transnational repression
Carney left Ottawa on Thursday morning en route to Mumbai.
He is expected to meet with business groups in the Indian city over the weekend before heading to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a meeting that will be closely watched.
Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi's government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalised Canadian citizen who advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau's government further charged India with directing a campaign of intimidation against Sikh activists across Canada.
India has denied those allegations.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand was asked Monday if Canadian concerns about transnational repression would feature at the New Delhi talks.
"Yes, that is always at the forefront of our minds," Anand told reporters in Ottawa.
Carney’s tour to India comes as police in Canada warned a prominent Sikh activist of "credible threat" to his family’s life.
Moninder Singh, leader of the Sikh Federation Canada, reported to local media that police visited his home on Sunday, warning of a risk to him and his family.
Singh, a close friend of Nijjar, told the media he believed the Indian government was behind the most recent threat.
But on Wednesday, a senior Canadian official told reporters the government was "confident" that India "is not continuing" with its policy of transnational repression in Canada.
"If we believed that the government of India was actively interfering in the Canadian democratic process, we probably would not be taking this trip," CBC News quoted the official as saying.