Modi’s strong support continues to transform Indian politics as well as India’s role in the region. Delhi continues to incrementally build up its partnership with the United States and has forged a strong bond with Japan, pledging to work together to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The growth in a strong and principled Indian vision for the region has grown amid the rise of its neighbour—and often rival—China. Beijing’s rapid modernization and expansion of its military, in addition to its aggressive push for influence in India’s backyard through its Belt and Road Initiative, has forced Delhi to reassess its approach to regional security and prompted its warmer embrace of key stakeholders also concerned about China’s rise.
The convergence of interests between India and Canada for a stable and rules-based region underscores the imperative for resetting an underperforming bilateral relationship. But, while Trudeau’s visit last February aimed to elevate ties to a strategic level, the results remain uninspired at best. Rather than aligning more closely with India, the week-long visit has now become an infamous model for how not to conduct diplomatic summitry.
One of the largest obstacles to trade and investment deals has been failed attempts to narrow gaps between Ottawa’s agenda for “progressive trade”—one that provides strong protections on issues such as gender, environment, labour, and human rights—and Delhi’s desire to be treated as a non-market economy. India, meanwhile, continues to insist on maintaining some of its protectionist barriers and tariffs to protect key sectors in agricultural areas for example, while promoting the need for labour mobility as a key to any deal with Canada.
But despite these trade hurdles and strains over Sikh extremism, Modi’s triumphant re-election should signal to Ottawa—and the world frankly—that India’s transformation and strategic role continue to rise apace. Rather than muddle through an underperforming relationship, Ottawa should take this opportunity to re-engage and reset its approach to India. This is particularly relevant considering Canada’s strained relations with China, plagued by Beijing’s arbitrary detention of two Canadians in response to the arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou last December. It is also critical to our attempt to strengthen relations in the Indo-Pacific region, premised on states that support a rules-based order, including the freedom of navigation and fair and open investment and infrastructure development.
The first step will be to engage with Delhi on a comprehensive manner on security issues, without marginalizing or downplaying the Indian government’s concerns about extremism and its impact on India’s own security. This does not mean Canada and India will come to an agreement on the issue of Sikh extremism, However, this issue needs to be addressed consistently and thoughtfully in order for both sides to pursue further security cooperation in other areas, ideally as part of the emerging Indo-Pacific approaches from both sides.
Second, on trade, it will be difficult to narrow the gap for a high-threshold free trade agreement, but it is important to continue to look at ways to engage the growing Indian economy and find areas of collaboration that make sense, especially in areas such as technology and artificial intelligence, where India is innovating at a fast pace.
Simply, the Canada-India relationship remains one of high potential but low impact. With growing uncertainty in the region, and a difficult road ahead in relations with the region’s biggest economy—China—it makes sense to reset the deck and double-down on engagement with India.
