Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau in Delhi where the two leaders discussed matters ranging from counter terrorism to clean energy and bilateral trade. On the sidelines of the Modi-Trudeau meeting, six memorandums of understandings were signed between various government departments of Canada and India on matters like information technology, energy cooperation and more.
With the Khalistan issue clouding Trudeau’s first state visit to India, the topic of terrorism featured prominently in the talks between him and PM Modi. “We discussed the entire gamut of bilateral partnership, and identified concrete steps to boost cooperation. We agreed to strengthen our defence cooperation,” Modi said, while noting that terrorism and violent extremism were threats for democratic countries such as India and Canada.
In his statement after the meeting concluded, Modi stated that those challenging India’s sovereignty, unit and integrity will not be tolerated. This is being seen as a veiled jibe at the soft approach of Canadian government towards Khalistani operations.
Energy cooperation
PM Modi said that Canada is an energy super power and can help India with growing energy needs. Both countries decided to prepare the roadmap for energy cooperation between them. The Indian PM also congratulated Canada for undeterred uranium exports which supplemented civil nuclear power usage and both leaders consented to expand the ongoing mutually-beneficial civil nuclear cooperation by developing collaboration in nuclear science and technology.
India and Canada agreed to strengthen bilateral and international cooperation to address climate change, implementing the Paris Agreement, and ensure a future with clean energy. The leaders agreed to expand the scope of the Canada-India Ministerial Energy Dialogue to additionally include electricity, energy efficiency and renewables, and agreed to hold the fourth meeting of the Ministerial Energy Dialogue in Canada in 2018.
Counter terrorism
India and Canada agreed on Framework for Cooperation on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism, which will facilitate effective cooperation between the law enforcement and security agencies as well as the legal and policy practitioners of the two countries for curbing terrorist activities. The Framework is meant to expand security cooperation through institutionalization of NSA-level Dialogue and regular convening of Foreign Minister-level Strategic Dialogue.
The Framework consists of institutionalized cooperation between the National Security Council Secretariat of the Republic of India and the office of Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor, a government statement said.
The National Security Advisor of India and the National Security and Intelligence Advisor of Canada acknowledged their partnership and commitment to strengthen cooperation in counter-terrorism capacity-building and to contribute to international efforts through the UN mechanisms and initiatives as well as groupings such as the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the Financial Action Task Force, and the G-20.
Indo-Canada trade ties
To continue strengthening the government-to-government framework for cooperative economic engagements, the prime ministers welcomed the conclusion of, and progress on, cooperation agreements/MoUs in areas such as civil nuclear science and technology, education, audio-visual co-production, information technology, intellectual property and sports, the statement said.
To realize the full potential of bilateral trade and investment, both sides will renew efforts to expand and diversify bilateral economic and commercial relations. They will also intensify negotiations to finalize a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and a Bilateral Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, it further added.
