India plans to invite Canadian PM Mark Carney as Republic Day chief guest amid trade deal talks

PM Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada in December, alongside trips to Belgium and the US.

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India is exploring the possibility of having Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year against the backdrop of hectic efforts by the two countries to finalise a trade deal by the year-end, people familiar with the matter said.

The choice of the chief guest for the event on January 26 is determined by a combination of strategic, diplomatic and economic factors, and also signals the strength of bilateral relations. India and Canada have focused on enhancing economic ties and efforts to bolster multilateralism since Carney became PM last year and took steps to repair relations that hit their lowest point under his predecessor Justin Trudeau.

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Economic partnership agreement

PM Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada in December, alongside trips to Belgium and the US, the people said. The trip to Ottawa is likely to coincide with the conclusion of negotiations on the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA). If it goes ahead, this will be the first bilateral visit to Canada by an Indian PM in a decade, since Modi’s trip in spring 2016, when Stephen Harper was Canada’s PM.

The move to consider Carney as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations is still at a very early stage and the invitation will likely be contingent on the two sides successfully negotiating the CEPA by December, the people said.

Four rounds of negotiations for CEPA have concluded and the fifth is currently underway, with an Indian team in Ottawa since October 5. Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand and trade minister Maninder Sidhu are expected to visit India in mid-October to drive forward the trade negotiations.

Carney was in India in March this year, with his visit seen as a signal regarding Canada’s desire to bolster ties with India at a time when his country is grappling with a widening trade war with the Trump administration in the US. During his visit, the two sides concluded agreements on critical minerals and the supply of uranium ore from Canada, and explored ways to expand trade from the current level of about $33 billion to $50 billion by 2030.

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Carney and Modi also met on the margins of the G7 Summit in France this summer.

The renewal of relations began when Carney invited Modi to the outreach session of the G7 Summit in Kananaskis in June 2025. That resulted in the two sides restoring high commissioners in the two capitals.

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  Anirudh Bhattacharya is a Toronto-based commentator on North American issues, and an author. He has also worked as a journalist in New Delhi and New York spanning print, television and digital media. He tweets as @anirudhb.Read More

• Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More