Anand Heads to India and the UAE as Canada Pushes for a Trade Agreement

Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, will visit India and the United Arab Emirates from October 13 to 16, Global Affairs Canada announced Monday, in a trip that coincides with the largest Canadian trade mission to India in more than 30 years.

The announcement sets out an itinerary and stated goals. It does not establish that agreements have been reached or that remaining disagreements have been resolved.

Meetings in India
Anand is to meet India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, to advance a bilateral roadmap covering trade, energy, people to people ties and security and defence cooperation. According to reporting based on the announcement, it would be their 11th meeting since September 2025. She will also speak on a panel at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi about middle powers and the changing global order, and is expected to present Canada as a “reliable partner for India and the broader Indo-Pacific region.”

Then the UAE
In the United Arab Emirates, Anand will meet Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, along with senior officials and business leaders on defence and security, artificial intelligence, innovation and economic cooperation. The visit builds on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s November 2025 visit, described as the first by a Canadian prime minister in more than four decades.

A trade mission at the same time
The more consequential commercial story is the trade mission led by Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu, with almost 300 delegates visiting Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru from October 12, in aerospace, clean technology and energy, information technology, life sciences and agri-food. Sidhu said the aim is to “secure commercial opportunities and build partnerships” and that “India is building at enormous scale and Canadian companies are ready to step up.” Both governments say they want to conclude a trade agreement by the end of 2026. Two-way trade in goods and services reached $ 30.4 billion in 2025, and Canada has said it wants to double it to $ 70 billion by 2030. One report says the fifth round of negotiations was held in Ottawa from October 5 to 9, but neither government has announced the outcome.

From dispute to reset, and what is unfinished
Talks were halted in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of a role in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist in British Columbia, a dispute that Canada and India have been working to move beyond. Carney visited Mumbai and New Delhi in March, the first visit by a Canadian prime minister in eight years, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Canada later this year, according to Canadian Press reporting. The visit signals that the reset is continuing, but the announcement did not address unresolved questions about security cooperation and accountability.

What to watch
The test is whether the meetings produce verifiable outcomes, such as a concluded trade agreement, a timeline or measurable investment, that can be independently examined. NordoVista will distinguish announcements made during the trip from measures that have taken effect.