'India is one of the fastest growing, need to do business with it': Canada's oppn leader backs G7 invite for Modi

With diplomatic ties between India and Canada slowly recovering, Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre has come out in strong support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's participation at the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta. Just days after Modi confirmed he would attend the summit following an invitation from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Poilievre stressed the strategic and economic need to engage with India.

“India has been at the last six G7 conferences. It's one of the biggest and fastest-growing economies in the world. We need to sell our natural gas, our civilian nuclear power technology and other resource projects to India. And we need to work with India and other countries on trade and security,” Poilievre said while speaking to reporters. "So we, as Conservatives, understand that the invitation is necessary and that we want to see the government work on addressing security issues at the same time... when the prime minister has those conversations with Prime Minister Modi.”

The G7 summit, scheduled to be held from June 15 to 17 in Canada's Kananaskis, marks a critical point in the effort to reset India-Canada relations, which deteriorated sharply last year following former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s accusation linking India to the killing of pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In response, both sides expelled senior diplomats and froze high-level engagement.

Carney’s outreach—during his first phone call with Modi since taking office in April—was widely viewed as an attempt to course-correct. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs noted that both leaders had “reaffirmed their commitment to work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests.”

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal also weighed in on the issue, cautioning Canada against overstepping its role in the G7. “Should be understood that Canada does not own the G7, it is only one of the members. It can’t easily unilaterally dilute the G7’s outreach agenda by not inviting a country like India which has been invited to G7 summits in previous years,” Sibal wrote.

He underlined the shifting global order and India’s position in it. “With shifts in power eastwards the G7 has lost centrality and needs to reach out to key rising economies to remain relevant. The G20 was the result. India in its own right and as a leader of the Global South matters.”

Sibal further argued that Canada has suffered more from the downturn in ties. “Canada is paying a higher price for the virtual collapse of its ties with India than the contrary is the case,” he said, adding that “Canada has also come under humiliating pressure from the US under Trump. It needs to establish other partnerships to have more room for manoeuvre.”

Modi’s attendance at the summit is expected to be closely watched, not least for how Canada handles inevitable protests by pro-Khalistan elements. “Carney has chosen to personally invite Modi to make sure he accepts the invitation. Now let’s see how he handles the inevitable demonstrations by the Canadian Sikh extremists who will see in this invitation a challenge to their vicious agenda,” Sibal noted.