Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touched down in Mumbai on Friday, 27 February 2026, at the head of a high-level delegation for a pivotal four-day official visit to India. Invited personally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the trip—from 27 February to 2 March—marks a deliberate bid to breathe new life into bilateral relations strained in recent years.

Landing in India's bustling financial hub sets an intentional tone. Carney's itinerary kicks off with two days of intensive economic engagements, including roundtables with top CEOs, financial luminaries, and executives from major Canadian pension funds. This opening gambit underscores Ottawa's priority: forging deeper commercial links to underpin diplomatic revival.

The Mumbai phase is no mere sideshow. It lays the groundwork for substantive high-level talks slated for 1-2 March in New Delhi. At the centrepiece will be delegation-level discussions at Hyderabad House, building directly on prior summits in Kananaskis and Johannesburg last year. These sessions aim to recalibrate the India-Canada Strategic Partnership across key domains.

Energy security tops the agenda, with talks eyeing joint ventures in renewables and clean tech. Critical minerals—vital for batteries and semiconductors—feature prominently, as both nations seek supply chain resilience amid global disruptions.

Research collaboration, from AI to quantum tech, rounds out the portfolio, blending public policy with private-sector dynamism via the India-Canada CEOs Forum.

This visit arrives against a backdrop of frayed ties. Relations plummeted after the 2023 killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, triggering explosive allegations from the Trudeau era. Ottawa accused Indian agents of involvement, prompting tit-for-tat diplomat expulsions and a near-freeze in high-level contacts.

Trade volumes nosedived, student visas dried up, and defence dialogues stalled. Yet winds have shifted under Carney's pragmatic leadership. Senior Canadian officials now publicly disavow prior claims linking India to the Nijjar case or other violence on Canadian soil, paving the way for this landmark trip.

Security channels have thawed too, thanks to backchannel efforts led by India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Recent dialogues yielded a robust action plan targeting transnational crime, extremism, and terror financing—flipping a flashpoint into a pillar of cooperation. Real-time intelligence sharing now underpins this reset.

Economically, complementarities abound. Canada's bounty of critical minerals dovetails with India's manufacturing surge under 'Make in India'. Pension funds like CPP Investments eye infrastructure plays, from green hydrogen to EV hubs. Bilateral trade, hovering at $10 billion annually, could double with tariff tweaks and investment pacts.

Defence ties, long dormant, hint at revival. Quiet overtures explore joint exercises and tech transfers in drones and maritime surveillance—areas aligning with India's self-reliance drive via iDEX and Aatmanirbhar Bharat. No grand announcements yet, but the groundwork feels solid.

Cultural bridges are rebuilding too. Student exchanges, slashed post-2023, are rebounding with eased visa norms. Diaspora communities—over 1.6 million strong in Canada—stand to benefit from eased travel and people-to-people links.

Geopolitically, timing is astute. With China pressing in the Indo-Pacific, India and Canada share stakes in a rules-based order. Ottawa's Indo-Pacific Strategy meshes with New Delhi's SAGAR vision, potentially amplifying Quad-plus dynamics without formal entanglement.

Active Khalistani terrorists in Canada remains a sore point, though de-emphasised now. Farmer protests and domestic politics in both nations demand careful navigation. Still, Carney's visit radiates optimism, pivoting from confrontation to convergence.

As the delegation shifts from Mumbai's skyscrapers to Delhi's corridors, expectations run high. A joint statement on 2 March could unveil MOUs on minerals, migration, and maritime security—milestones in a partnership reborn. For two middle powers with aligned ambitions, this feels like a page turn.

Carney's mission embodies realpolitik at work: economics as diplomacy's handmaiden, security as the glue. If Delhi and Ottawa play their hands right, 2026 could etch a new chapter in Indo-Canadian annals—one of mutual gain over mutual grievance.

ANI