Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: India and Canada are planning to conclude a trade deal by the end of 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday during his first visit to New Delhi, as the two countries sought to move past two years of diplomatic friction to get economic ties back on track, the media reported.
Meanwhile, Canadian firm Cameco Corporation signed a C$2.6 billion (USD 1.9 billion) uranium supply deal with India during PM Carney’s first official visit to the country. It will supply 22 million pounds (11,000 tonnes) of the reactor fuel to India between 2027 and 2035. The two nations also agreed to cooperate in sectors including liquefied natural gas (LPG), critical minerals, solar and hydrogen energies.
New Delhi and Ottawa hope to increase their bilateral trade from USD 9 billion in 2024-25 to USD 50 billion by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a joint media appearance with PM Carney.
The two sides have agreed to the terms of reference on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
The deal with Cameco also comes barely two months after India ended a state monopoly over atomic power generation and diluted liability rules to attract private investors.
This liberalization is part of New Delhi’s efforts to raise its nuclear power capacity by 11-fold, from 8.8 gigawatt (GW) to 100 GW by 2047, creating a growing market for uranium that can’t be met by India’s domestic resources alone.
Nuclear cooperation between the two nations dates back to the 1950s, although New Delhi went into decades of nuclear isolation after its first nuclear test in 1974. A 2008 deal with the US helped it regain access to global reactor fuel and technology.
India and Canada had previously signed a nuclear cooperation agreement in 2010, paving the way for a uranium supply deal in 2025 with Cameco, based in Saskatchewan, that’s now expired.
New Delhi currently has an ongoing uranium import contract with Uzbekistan, Atomic Energy minister Dr. Jitendra Singh told lawmakers in March 2025. India’s 8.8 GW of nuclear power accounts for less than 2 percent of its total capacity.
Canada and India will conclude a new CEPA this year to advance Ottawa’s goal of doubling two-way trade with New Delhi by 2030, Carney’s office said in a statement.
The two nations also agreed to expand cooperation in space and signed an initial pact to collaborate on development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) under the multilateral Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation Partnership. Indian software major, HCL Technologies Ltd., will expand its operations in Canada, potentially increasing its workforce there by 75 percent by 2030.
Under their fresh uranium deal, they will work on building small modular nuclear reactors and advanced reactors. “In civil nuclear energy, we have concluded a landmark deal for the long-term supply of uranium,” PM Modi said.
India and Canada’s Cameco signed a uranium supply agreement to support India’s nuclear ambitions and to work towards a clean, reliable base load power, PM Carney added.
Relations between India and Canada deteriorated sharply in 2023 after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged Indian involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist, accusations New Delhi rejected as “absurd”. Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was allegedly killed in British Columbia. The dispute deepened and led to expulsions of diplomats and freezing of trade negotiations.
PM Carney’s four-day India visit is aimed at resetting ties, as both countries look to diversify trade away from the United States due to tariff announcements and deepen cooperation in areas such as clean energy, critical minerals and agricultural value chains.
India sealed a free-trade pact with the European Union in January, while it recently paused negotiations with the United States on a proposed deal, hoping to resume once there is greater clarity following the invalidation of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.