Canada’s U-Turn on India

After an initial refusal to extend invitation, Canadian President Mark Carney extended the invitation to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the upcoming G7summit. Pressure from other G7 nations forced Canada to dial back on its earlier omission of India.

G7, was originally, a grouping of the world’s seven largest economies. Now an antiquated term, with yesteryear’s grouping consisting of US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. India, the fastest growing major economy, has been invited to G7 since 2019. Ottawa had initially decided to overlook India, a move that raised questions on Canada’s authority in the international stage.

Pressure and pragmatism prevailed over the newly elected Canadian leader Mark Carney –to get the 4thlargest world economy onboard has its own dividends for his stagnating economy. This comes at a time when India has recently successfully concluded strikes against Pakistan.

Delhi and Ottawa have had strained relations in recent years, when Canada publicly accused India of killing a Canadian terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in its soil. Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a wanted terrorist in India, has been orchestrating radical secession activities against India since long. While rejecting Ottawa’s allegation, India has instead accused Canada of harbouring hardened criminals and drug-traffickers who flee Indian security agencies and find safe haven in Canada. Refusal to extradite and act against these criminals has irked New Delhi. The confrontation escalated into mutual diplomatic expulsions and a breakdown in engagement in recent times. Geopolitical experts say that it is unusual for any nation to jeopardize diplomatic equation with a large economy in the world over the killing of a terrorist to soothe domestic politics.

Carney stated that it made ‘sense’ to invite the ‘fifth largest economy’ on being asked why India was invited. He was blissfully unaware that India now ranks fourth not fifth based on the latest figures. Nevertheless, G7 summit will be closely watched by many - in a rapidly changing global environment engulfed by wars and self-serving interests, world dynamics offer no guarantees, only volatile possibilities.