Canada and India move toward closer ties amid unresolved allegations of transnational repression
Prime Minister Mark Carney has invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Canada for an official visit in 2026, following a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France on Tuesday. The two leaders also agreed to launch negotiations on a General Security of Information Agreement that would facilitate the exchange of classified defence and security intelligence.
The Prime Minister’s Office readout of the meeting made no mention of foreign interference or transnational repression — allegations that have shadowed Canada-India relations since 2023.
A Relationship in Thaw
The G7 meeting is the latest step in a broader effort by Carney to repair ties with India after a dramatic diplomatic rupture. Ottawa suspended free trade negotiations with New Delhi in 2023 after the federal government accused India of involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh activist killed in Surrey, B.C.
Carney travelled to India in late February and early March, where he and Modi agreed to resume free trade talks and signed a new energy partnership. Tuesday’s readout said both governments are looking forward to upcoming dialogues in the areas of defence, finance, and migration.
India’s rapprochement is part of a wider Canadian pivot toward new trade and security partners in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war. Canada has also sought closer ties with China — Carney visited Beijing in January and signed several agreements, including a security cooperation pact between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security that has drawn scrutiny for its lack of transparency.
The Nijjar Assassination and Its Aftermath
The RCMP believes members of the India-based Lawrence Bishnoi gang were hired by the Indian government to kill Nijjar in 2023, in what investigators describe as an act of transnational repression tied to his activism in the Khalistan movement, which advocates for an independent Punjabi state.
Modi’s government was later implicated in a second alleged assassination plot targeting a Canadian Khalistan activist living in New York. An internal RCMP report obtained by Global News described the Bishnoi group as engaging in murder-for-hire in Canada and “acting on behalf of the Indian government.”
The Bishnoi gang has also claimed responsibility for a wave of extortion-related violence across multiple provinces, threatening in a letter to a B.C. police station last year that it had 1,000 members prepared to carry out shootings in Canada. Ottawa designated the gang a foreign terrorist entity in 2024.
India denies any involvement in the Nijjar killing. Its top envoy in Ottawa, Dinesh Patnaik, told the Globe and Mail last month that Canada’s national security agencies had been “compromised.”
Carney’s Ambiguous Position
Ahead of Carney’s India trip, a senior government official told reporters that Canada was confident Indian foreign interference was “not happening anymore” — a claim that drew immediate pushback from Sikh community groups, who said they continue to receive police warnings that their lives are in danger.
Sikh organizations have protested outside Parliament, saying they feel “betrayed” by Carney’s shifting posture toward New Delhi.
When asked in Australia whether he endorsed his official’s remarks, Carney distanced himself: “I would not use those words.” But he also declined, on multiple occasions, to state directly whether India is currently interfering in Canadian democracy or targeting Sikh activists on Canadian soil.
“I will tell you that there is progress on these issues,” Carney said. “We will not tolerate foreign interference, transnational repression, by anyone — and I stress, by anyone. There’s a wide range of countries who make these efforts from time to time.”
— With files from Global News’ Stewart Bell and The Canadian Press
