The Braided Narrative of the Canada-India Relationship

By : Abdul Nafey

Page No: 203-223

Abstract
Canada and India have been working to ‘reset’ their bilateral ties. They agreed upon a ‘new roadmap’ a year ago. The two sides have admittedly made more progress on the ‘new roadmap’ in the last one year than they did in the last two decades combined. What has happened? For some two years, the relationship between the two countries was on a downward spiral. Who is Mike Carney, and why does he find India a potential partner in the unstable, and largely unpredictable, world order? It is a ‘hinge moment’ in Canada’s diplomatic history. The Liberal International Order (LIO), set up after World War II, is gone. In Canada’s worldview, it is the moment of ‘rupture’, not ‘transition’, of the global order. The age of great power arbitrariness has returned. Great powers are out to use integration as a weapon, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, and supply chains as vulnerabilities. What is likely to be replaced is issue-specific and interest-based coalitions of likeminded countries — more as a plurilateral rather than some new multilateral arrangement. There is great mutual interest for middle powers, like Canada and India, to collaborate in this situation for a rule-based order. Bilateral relations have swiftly progressed beyond the conventional areas of trade, immigration, and nuclear cooperation. Cooperation in critical minerals, AI, investment, high technology collaboration, higher education, space, defence, and maritime security are their new calling. The vision of Viksit Bharat and Build Canada Strong are found to be aligned. Canada claims it has ‘what the world wants’. On its part, India wants to make it the ‘New Level Partnership’. This time, it could really be different as two countries shrug off the baggage of the past half-a-century, and move forward.

Author
Abdul Nafey is Professor of Canadian Studies. He was formerly at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/IFAJ.2025.20.3.3