Canada, India seal Rs 17k-crore pact for uranium supply

New Delhi: Resetting relations with New Delhi that remained strained due to diplomatic tensions over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil in 2023, Canada on Monday committed to a Rs 17,403 crore (2.6 billion Canadian dollars or $1.9 billion) agreement pledging an expansion in uranium shipments to India for nuclear power generation.

The commercial agreement between Canada’s Cameco and India’s Department of Atomic Energy for the long-term supply of uranium would play a critical role in New Delhi’s efforts to build small modular reactors, compatible with the new civil nuclear energy framework passed by Parliament last year.

“In civil nuclear energy, we have reached a landmark deal for long-term uranium supply. We will also work together on small modular reactors and advanced reactors,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told reporters after meeting the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Hyderabad House in Delhi on Monday.

Modi and Carney expressed confidence on expanding bilateral trade to Rs 4.65 lakh crore by 2030.

After assuming office, this is Carney’s first official visit to India. He arrived in Mumbai last week on an invitation extended by Modi.

Calling the two countries “natural partners”, Modi announced India and Canada would jointly host a renewable energy summit, calling for enhanced co-operation in AI, supercomputing, and semiconductors.

Carney hailed the progress in mending the ties between New Delhi and Ottawa, adding that the two countries are embarking on a strategic energy partnership.

“There has been more engagement between the Canadian and Indian governments in the last year than there has been in more than two decades combined,” Carney said.

Seeking to reduce their exposure to the US markets, India and Canada finalised the terms of reference of a free trade deal, which the two sides pledged would be concluded by the end of this year. The two nations hailed the agreements reached as a “new era of partnership”.

Under Carney’s leadership, Canada has sought to mend ties with India after relations between the two countries plummeted after Ottawa linked New Delhi with the assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023. India vehemently rejected allegations by Carney’s predecessor

India’s second nuclear power plant at Rawal Bhata in Rajasthan was set up with Canadian support in 1975.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar called on the visiting PM, as the two sides discussed a “forward-looking partnership”.

The two sides also finalised agreements in areas such as technology, critical minerals, space, defence and education as Modi held bilateral talks with his Canadian counterpart.

Carney is scheduled to travel to Australia and Japan after concluding his visit to India. This is being seen as a part of Canada’s efforts to diversify its strategic ties in the backdrop of plummeting ties with Washington under the Trump administration.