Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to arrive on a six-day state visit to the country beginning on November 3.
And Harper, who will be accompanied by a large business delegation, will also travel to Agra, Chandigarh and Bangalore to meet the Indian leadership. The talks between the two sides is likely to centre on the steps to boost the energy ties. Besides, Harper will address the World Economic Forum (WEF) to be held at Gurgaon on November 8-9.
This is Harper’s second visit to the country following his maiden one in 2009. And Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had made a return trip to Canada in 2010, which coincided with the G20 summit, during which New Delhi and Ottawa signed a landmark agreement on civilian nuclear energy.
The high-level Canadian delegation, meanwhile, will include five ministers, including Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources who had visited the country earlier this month.
This underlines the basic complementarity of interest, as India seeks more sources of energy, just as Canada is looking to find new markets. So far, energy accounts for only a fraction of the bilateral trade worth over $5 billion.
Mainly, the urgency on the part of Ontario in scouting around for new markets for its oil and gas has got to do with the fact that the US, which has been its primary market, is expected to become a net exporter of energy in a couple of years.
And the breakthrough achieved in the extraction of shale hydrocarbon, has meant that there is increased gas production by both the US and Canada.