Modi & Carney Re-launch India-Canada CEPA Talks After Two-Year Freeze

Great-power frictions often pause but rarely end commerce; Canada resumed wheat sales to China only six years after Tiananmen (1995), and US-Vietnam trade normalised 20 years after Saigon’s fall (2001). Likewise, Ottawa and New Delhi are testing whether economic self-interest can outpace diaspora politics and mutual accusations. Canada wants to cut its 75 % export dependence on the US, echoing the 1988 FTA debates when diversification fears surfaced; India seeks multiple G7 partners to hedge against a possible repeat of post-1974 nuclear sanctions. The ACITI framework hints at an emerging mid-power lattice—countries rich in critical minerals, markets and tech pooling resources outside US-China polarities. If CEPA materialises, it would mark only the second time (after the 1947 Indo-Canadian wheat agreement) that the two Commonwealth states lock in a long-term economic pact—minor today, but a brick in the century-long trend toward a more polycentric trade architecture where security spats slow, rather than stop, supply-chain realignments.