UNITED NATIONS: Canada highlighted efforts to build renewed partnerships with large economies like India and China, as well as new initiatives with New Delhi to strengthen multilateralism, at the UN General Assembly.
In her address at the high-level General Debate at the UNGA on Saturday, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said that in the economic realm, Canada is focused on what it can control: diversifying its trade and catalysing a trillion dollars of investment in the country over the next five years.
She said for this, Ottawa is exploring new opportunities with partners in the Indo-Pacific, the Gulf region and Latin America. "This includes building renewed partnerships with large economies like India and China,” Anand said.
The minister also highlighted efforts with India and other nations to strengthen multilateralism and boost UN reforms.
Earlier this week, India co-sponsored an inaugural multilateralism summit at UN headquarters, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar co-chairing the first-ever ‘Partners for Multilateralism, International Law, Peace & Prosperity (P4M)’ Summit along with leaders of Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada and Kenya.
“At a time when we are forming new coalitions, we should also strengthen the multilateral system. This is why Canada and our partners throughout the entire world have started a new initiative entitled ‘Partners for Multilateralism. This initiative seeks to support United Nations reform and reform of other institutions to make them more representative, more effective, and more trustworthy,” Anand said.
Canada told world leaders that “great powers want the rest of us to accept what we are offered, and too often, state sovereignty, the cornerstone of the UN Charter, has been treated with disdain.”
Anand said the world faces serious challenges in the global order, but at their core, Canadians and billions of others around the world want to live peaceful, prosperous, and predictable lives.
“That is why, in the face of this rupture, Canada's goal is to achieve greater strategic autonomy, greater autonomy to make our own choices and to determine our own sovereign future.
"We can no longer afford to be overly reliant on any one partner. Instead, we are diversifying our ties and building stronger relationships with new and old partners alike, so that our people can enjoy peace and prosperity,” she said.
Anand said Ottawa will prioritise decisive, effective action by forging issue-based coalitions of nations that share a sense of urgency on common challenges.
“We believe that these coalitions are the most flexible, effective, and immediate way to address emerging global challenges,” she said.
Earlier on Saturday, Anand and Jaishankar held a “productive discussion” on the margins of the UNGA as the countries “prepare to take the relationship to a higher level.”
“Always a pleasure to meet FM @AnitaAnandMP of Canada #UNGA81. A productive discussion as we prepare to take the relationship to a higher level,” Jaishankar said in a post on X.
India-Canada relations deteriorated sharply during the tenure of former prime minister Justin Trudeau, and have shown signs of gradual normalisation since Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took charge in March 2025.
Earlier this week, Carney said at the UN that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada around December this year, noting that Ottawa is making “good progress” in its trade negotiations with India.
“We are making good progress in our trade negotiations with India. It is an exceptionally important relationship on many many levels, people-to-people levels, security levels, and also trade and economic,” Carney had said at a press conference Tuesday on the sidelines of the UNGA session.
Carney was responding to a question about when Modi will visit Canada and how close Ottawa was to concluding a free trade deal with Delhi.
Carney said India and Canada committed at last year's G20 to “look to conclude negotiations by the G20 this year”.
US President Donald Trump will host the G20 Summit on December 14–15 at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Doral, Florida.
Carney said, with the G20 Summit slated to be held in December, “I believe that India just confirmed that the Prime Minister (Modi) will be visiting Canada around that time. The precise date isn't out, but I very much look forward to hosting him".