While Indian officials are engrossed in the current undertakings at the 30th CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, jointly hosted by Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the nation’s trade negotiations with international delegates are equally making headlines across the board. Ahead of the Andhra Pradesh event, officials from both the Indian and Canadian sides sat down together in the national capital to hash out trade ties that were briefly frozen in 2023.

India-Canada trade deal

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has since positively shed light on the discussions that became a focal point of the 7th Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment (MDTI) in New Delhi from November 11-14. He met with Canada’s Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development, Maninder Sidhu after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised cooperation from the Indian side at the G7 Summit earlier this year.

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“All possibilities are on the table. We have had two rounds of discussions now,” the Indian union minister said of the ongoing engagements with Canada. Goyal further told ANI in Visakhapatnam, “We met in Delhi for the high-level ministerial meeting. We met briefly today to also discuss the way forward to strengthen our bilateral cooperation and strategic partnership.” (Nov 14)

Ahead of Goyal’s remarks on the issue, Canada’s Maninder Sidhu said that the India-Canada trade negotiations had been restarted under a “new process,” as per Reuters. He further detailed that the productive engagement in New Delhi focussed on sectors like critical minerals, clean energy, agriculture, aerospace and artificial intelligence.

Noting “the meeting went very well,” in an interview with Reuters, Sidhu said the trade cooperation with India had been especially fuelled by the new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government. As a result, a “new focus, new energy and new mandate” revamped the previously stale ties between both the nations.

Negotiations hit a dead-end in 2023 as relations took a turn for the worse at the time when Canada accused New Delhi of playing a role in the killing of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar while Justin Trudeau was prime minister.

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Merely days ago, India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar also shared insight into his recent meeting with Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand. “Congratulated her on hosting the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting,” he wrote on X. “Appreciated the progress in implementation of the New Roadmap 2025. Look forward to the further rebuilding of our bilateral partnership.”

Piyush Goyal at 30th CII Partnership Summit

Proudly talking about the country’s ties with the globe, Goyal embraced PM Modi’s mantra, “. The world is one family,” as he opened up about having crossed paths with ministers from across the world at the 30th CII Partnership Summit.

Over 100 international delegates are said to have attended the event in Andhra Pradesh. “Almost every continent was represented. We had ministers from North America and Latin America. We had ministers from Europe and Africa,” the union minister added. “We had a minister from Southeast Asia. So effectively, the entire globe was represented at this partnership summit, demonstrating India as a friend of humanity.”