Ottawa, May 25 (IANS) Maninder Sidhu, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, said India and Canada are working towards a deal in Canada with the largest business delegation ever from India in history.

During a joint statement by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Maninder Sidhu, Sidhu warmly welcomed Minister Goyal, saying, “there’s a lot of excitement to do more with India in terms of our economic partnership.”

He said he is hearing from the business communities across the country, from Chambers of Commerce, and from their stakeholders.

He said Minister Goyal’s visit is a very timely visit with the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and CAD 2.6 billion uranium deal in March.

“This is very important, it’s going to be building on the meetings that we’re having over the next 48 hours, we’re going to be sitting down with our chief negotiators, two rounds have been done, we’re going to be working together, a lot of WhatsApp diplomacy between us to conclude a deal this year,” Sindhu noted.

He also announced that he will be taking a team, a Canadian trade mission, to India later this year to match the energy that Minister Goyal brought here to Canada.

Piyush Goyal said during the joint media address, “We had the visit of (Canada’s) Prime Minister Mark Carney in India just a couple of months ago, and it was the first visit by a Canadian Prime Minister to India in eight years, but I think it completely changed the way Canada and India looked at each other.”

It has in motion the pathway to a complete overhaul of the India-Canada relationship, setting new agendas, new goals, in mission mode, he noted, saying he can clearly see the speed and intent of both sides, which is phenomenal when it comes to working together for the shared prosperity of the people of India and Canada, providing business opportunities for both countries.

He highlighted that the Prime Ministers tasked them with completing the free trade agreement with a comprehensive outlook before the end of this year or earlier, but tripling our trade from the current USD 17 billion to USD 50 billion by 2030.

“Canada and India, two very consequential economies, two democracies, two sets of people who believe in the shared prosperity of not only our two countries, but our own contribution to global economies and global peace and security, is a relationship that’s going to be very important in the years to come,” noted Minister Goyal.

–IANS

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