Why PM Modi's Canada Visit For G7 Is Significant? Four Key Firsts During His Trip
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This will be PM Modi's first meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Carney since the latter took office
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Alberta, Canada later this month to attend the G7 Summit from June 15 to 17. The visit, confirmed after a phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, is seen as highly significant, both diplomatically and strategically, as it comes despite ongoing tensions between the two nations.
Canada currently holds the G7 presidency, and Carney extended the invitation, saying India, as the world's most populous country and fifth largest economy, must be part of important global discussions.
'India is the fifth largest economy in the world, the most populous country in the world and central to supply chains," Carney said.
Why PM Modi's Canada Visit Matters?
First Modi-Carney Meeting
This will be PM Modi's first meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Carney since the latter took office. Carney, during his campaign, underlined that India is an 'incredibly important" partner for Canada. He acknowledged the strain in relations but expressed hope for a forward-looking dialogue based on mutual respect.
The invitation was not without controversy — pro-Khalistani groups, including the World Sikh Organization of Canada, criticised the move, citing unresolved concerns over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023.
Despite the pressure, Carney defended the decision, stating that India's role in global affairs made its presence at the G7 essential.
This will also be PM Modi's first visit to Canada since relations soured under former PM Justin Trudeau. Last year, Trudeau publicly accused India of being linked to the killing of Nijjar, a Khalistani separatist, in British Columbia.
The fallout saw tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and the lowest point in India-Canada relations in recent history.
This trip also marks PM Modi's first foreign engagement since India's military operation, Operation Sindoor, launched last month in response to a terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
The operation led to a brief military standoff with Pakistan. The visit will be closely watched as it comes on the heels of these developments, showing India's intent to remain engaged on global platforms even amid regional tensions.
Modi-Trump First Encounter Since Tariff Row, India-Pak Truce Claim
Another closely watched moment at the G7 could be PM Modi's interaction with US President Donald Trump. This would be their first meeting since Trump imposed a 26% tariff on Indian goods earlier this year — a decision later paused.
Trump has also claimed credit for brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, a claim India has firmly rejected. New has always maintained that the decision to pause military actions was coordinated between the two nations' military leaderships, not mediated by any third party.
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Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
Life returning to normal, says Poonch resident as Op Sindoor marks 1 month
As Operation Sindoor, launched by Indian armed forces in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, marks one month on Sunday, people living near the Indo-Pakistan border in Poonch district said that life is slowly returning to normal after the ceasefire with schools opening and people getting back to their routine. "Uss bhayanak khwab ko bhule toh nahi hain, lekin bhoolne ki koshish kar rahe hain. (We haven't forgotten that terrible dream, but are trying to forget it)," said Pradeep Khanna, a local resident in Poonch. Speaking to ANI on Saturday, Khanna said, "Operation Sindoor was launched to avenge the Pahalgam terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 26 people. Prime Minister Narendera Modi said that the terrorists would be given a befitting reply, which they received. On intervening May 6-7, nine terrorist hideouts in Pakistan were destroyed. After that firing took place here in Poonch, which is also called the battlefield of Jammu and Kashmir." "After the ceasefire, life is slowly returning to normal. Schools have reopened, and people are returning to their works. We haven't forgotten that terrible dream, but are trying to forget it. We celebrated Eid al-Adha together with all the people here in unity. Operation Sindoor is not over yet. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are united in the fight against terrorism," said Khanna. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 and struck nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir in response to a ghastly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam last month in which 26 people were killed. After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres, and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan. After this, on May 10, an understanding of the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was announced. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Top Gujarat Congress leader arrested over Op Sindoor post: Who is Rajesh Soni?
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) general secretary Rajesh Soni, arrested for an alleged objectionable post on Operation Sindoor, belongs to a family of jewellers and is a first-generation politician, say his party colleagues. Many in the Congress refer to Soni as the go-to person for 'publicity-related tasks'. At least three top party leaders told The Indian Express that the credit for putting up maximum hoardings and billboards during Congress party events goes to him. However, according to his detractors in the party say 'his billboards would mostly be of his mentors and patrons in the party'. Soni, who is in his forties, was arrested by the Gujarat State Cyber Crime Cell on Friday under sections 152 (endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India) and 353 (making, publishing or circulating statements that could lead to public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita (BNS) for alleged posts on his social media handles and pages that were 'demoralising for the Army', as per the FIR. Originally from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Soni joined the Congress in 2015 with his team of supporters. 'Within just a couple of years of his joining the party, he was made an All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegate. Promotions came early for him compared to other senior leaders,' said a Congress leader in the Ahmedabad city unit. He was appointed general secretary of the state unit in 2022 when former MP Jagdish Thakor was the state party president. Thakor described Soni as a person 'who did a lot of charity and was always at the forefront to help during natural calamities', while state Congress spokesperson Amit Nayak recalled how, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Soni ran a community kitchen. Former Union minister Bharatsinh Solanki, who was the state Congress president from 2015 to 2018, told The Indian Express, 'Soni holds an event every year to distribute notebooks to children and this time he invited me. I suggested that he also distribute tablets. He obliged and gave tablets to some five children.' Soni's father, a jewellery businessman from Pali in Rajasthan, came to Ahmedabad for business and the family decided to settle down in the city's Isanpur area, where Soni was born. When he was young, Soni joined his father's business. 'Later, he got into the construction business and launched his own company called Soni Corporation,' said Nayak. Soni's party colleagues said one of the reasons he was being 'targeted' because he is an 'RTI activist' and participates in television debates.'Soni is being targeted because he is a kattar agevan (staunch leader), has been in charge of the party's IT Cell earlier. He is part of our TV debate team and his appearances must have bothered the BJP government,' said Nayak. The spokesperson, who said he was also booked for his social media posts in 2023, added, 'We have decided that all top leaders of the party will repost Rajesh Soni's (alleged objectionable) post and then go to the DGP's (Director General of Police) office to court arrest.' Top Congress leaders such as state Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Amit Chavda have criticised the action against Soni and demanded immediate bail. Gohil said Friday that the Gandhinagar Police cyber crime team picked up Soni as if he were a 'terrorist'. He said Soni's post was more about giving credit to the soldiers for their bravery and saying that 'money from the public treasury should not be used for publicity and … political gains should not be taken in the name of Operation Sindoor'.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Tavleen Singh writes: Political poster boys
An unforeseen consequence of Operation Sindoor has been that South Asia's two poster boys of dynastic democracy surfaced and made fools of themselves. I speak of Bilawal Bhutto and Rahul Gandhi. They would not be considered political leaders at all if it were not for their illustrious surnames. As someone who believes dynastic succession should have ended when feudalism did, I watched the performance of these two political princes with real interest. The first performance came from Bilawal Bhutto, who made a speech on the banks of the Indus a day after India decided to suspend the Indus Water Treaty. In this speech, he threatened that either water would flow down the Indus or the 'blood of our enemies'. His Urdu remains bad, so he used melodrama to compensate and, in the manner of a crazed messiah, shrieked 'the Indus has always been ours, is ours, and will be ours'. This one speech was proof that not only was the heir to the mighty Bhutto dynasty linguistically challenged, but that he was politically challenged as well. But Pakistan's military rulers were clearly impressed with his performance and sent him off to Washington to convince people that it was Pakistan that was the victim of terrorism and that India's allegations were lies. It took Shashi Tharoor, who was also in Washington, one minute to demolish the narrative that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's heir was trying to weave. Tharoor said he sympathised with Bilawal because his mother had been killed by jihadi terrorists, but he seemed to have forgotten Hillary Clinton's warning to Pakistan. If you breed vipers in your backyard, you cannot expect that they will only attack your neighbour. Pakistan's terrorists are home-bred. Last week came a performance from the heir to our own storied dynasty. Rahul has, since Operation Sindoor, made statements that have been applauded in Pakistan even by Hafiz Saeed. But last week, he outdid himself. In the manner of a schoolboy discussing a cricket match, and with a sneery grin on his face, he imitated Donald Trump having a conversation with our prime minister on the phone and saying 'Narendra, Surrender'. And then he mimicked Narendra Modi saying 'ji huzoor'. The point the Leader of the Opposition was trying to make was that when his grandmother was prime minister, the Seventh Fleet was sent by Richard Nixon to warn her that breaking up Pakistan would have consequences. And she had courageously remained fixed on the course that she had set. A dangerous analogy to evoke, because Indira Gandhi also ended up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (to use that useful cliché) by signing the Simla Agreement. All the cards were in India's hands. There were more than 90,000 prisoners of war in the custody of the Indian Army, so she could have told Bhutto that there would be no agreement without a signed guarantee that the Kashmir issue would end now. Instead, the agreement has a feeble reference to Kashmir being decided bilaterally. Years later, I happened to learn from a close associate of Bhutto that he boasted afterwards that he had outdone her. What exactly was the point that Indira's grandson was trying to make? Was he trying to prove the debunked falsehood that Modi agreed to a ceasefire because of pressure from Trump? Was he trying to say that the war should have continued indefinitely? Or was he trying to say what Congress spokespersons have said in TV debates, which is that the war should have continued until Pakistan is broken up once more? This was never the objective of Operation Sindoor. It had the limited objective of destroying Pakistan's terrorist infrastructure and from all accounts this objective was achieved. To return, though, to the poster boys of dynastic democracy. Bilawal has lost his relevance in Pakistani politics and is now merely a spokesman for the military men who control the political chessboard. Rahul remains relevant because he is fully in control of our oldest political party. And the only national party, we have other than the BJP. We have no choice but to take what he says seriously, which is why it is worrying that he continues to sound like a schoolboy with a special grudge against Modi for daring to usurp India, which he considers his birthright to rule since his family once did. It is this idea that India remains the private property of the Dynasty that is destroying the Congress Party. If you have been following recent events, you would have noticed that the Congress leaders in the parliamentary delegations have done an extremely good job. The only people who have let the party down are those who constitute the coterie around our own poster boy of dynastic democracy. It could be time for those who want Congress to survive and thrive to come together and urge the Dynasty's heirs to consider playing the role that the Chairman Emeritus plays in companies. If they agree, they can continue to have relevance in the family firm, but can move away from playing an active role. How long does the Congress Party want to pretend that Rahul is its prime minister-in-waiting when he has been unable to win a single Lok Sabha election for the party? One way or another dynastic democracy is a bad idea. And it is abundantly obvious that India's voters saw this before our political leaders have.
