Carney Invites Modi to G7 Summit despite Strained Ties between Canada and India
Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives to hold a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, June 6, 2025.
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta later this month, an invitation Modi accepted despite strained ties between the countries.
The countries expelled each other's top diplomats last year over the killing of a Sikh Canadian activist in Canada and allegations of other crimes.
The invitation prompted anger from the World Sikh Organization of Canada, which wrote to Carney in May asking him not to invite Modi. Tensions remain high between Canada and India over accusations about Indian government agents being involved in the murder of a Canadian activist for Sikh separatism in British Columbia in 2023.
Carney extended the invitation to Modi in a phone call between the two leaders on Friday. The summit runs from June 15 to 17.
Carney noted Canada is in the role of G7 chair and said there are important discussions that India should be a part of.
'India is the fifth largest economy in the world, the most populous country in the world and central to supply chains,' Carney told reporters, adding that there has been some progress on law enforcement dialogue between the two countries.
'I extended the invitation to Prime Minister Modi and, in that context, he has accepted,' Carney said.
Carney said there is a legal process underway in the killing of the Canadian Sikh activist and said he would not comment on the case when asked by a reporter if he thought Modi was involved.
The tit-for-tat expulsions came after Canada told India that its top diplomat in the country is a person of interest in the 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and that police have uncovered evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.
Modi said he was glad to receive a call from Carney and congratulated him on his recent election victory.
'As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests. Look forward to our meeting at the summit,' Modi said in a social media statement.
Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.
Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Niijar's murder.
Balpreet Singh, legal counsel and spokesperson for the World Sikh Organization of Canada, called Carney's invitation to Modi a 'betrayal of Canadian values.'
'The summit to which Mr. Modi is being invited falls on the anniversary of the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar two years ago,' he said. 'So for us, this is unacceptable, it's shocking and it's a complete reversal of the principled stand that Prime Minister Trudeau had taken.'
Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an association on foreign soil.
In 2023 U.S. prosecutors said an Indian government official directed a failed plot to assassinate another Sikh separatist leader in New York.
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Under its 'small yard and high fence' policy, the Biden administration (2021-2025) employed the Trump playbook and hailed export controls as 'a new strategic asset in the U.S. and allied toolkit.' As a result, the Biden administration surpassed the Trump administration's tally of Chinese companies added to the U.S. Commerce Department's 'Entity List.' Moreover, the Biden administration expanded the scope of restricted technologies to include semiconductors and also addressed Chinese 'overcapacity' in clean energy tech (including solar cells and batteries). The current Trump administration (2025-present) has followed through on the Biden administration's tariffs on Chinese semiconductors (starting January 2025) and the December 2024 Section 301 probe into Chinese semiconductors used in American consumer products. Moreover, with DeepSeek highlighting China's advances in the AI domain, the Trump administration built on Biden's 2022 and 2023 restrictions on export of AI-relevant chips to China. This included the April 2025 action on mandating export licenses for less-powerful variants of AI-relevant chips (which the Biden administration backed down from acting against) and the May 2025 restrictions on China's access to chip-designing software. The China-U.S. tech rivalry, now well into its ninth year, has had global implications. Recently, Malaysia began mandating permits for export of U.S.-origin AI-relevant chips to clamp down against transshipment of components to China. Similarly, Singapore has cracked down on individuals allegedly involved in routing of Nvidia's chips to China's DeepSeek. The Trump administration has also continued pursuing the Biden-era goal of seeking compliance from Japanese and Dutch companies on curbing China's access to semiconductor equipment. In addition, the Trump administration's decision to rescind the Biden-era 'AI Diffusion Rule' has led to a scramble from nations seeking AI-relevant chips. The Biden-era rule had defined limits on export of semiconductors for nations categorized into three tiers. The Trump administration's decision to not adopt this framework has led to a country-by-country approach, which was on display during Trump's visit to the Gulf in May 2025. While hosting Trump, Saudi Arabia and the UAE finalized one-on-one agreements on access to American AI-relevant chips and partnerships with U.S. tech companies on AI infrastructure. Ahead of the Quad Summit in India later this year, there is immense scope for further refining AI cooperation among Quad nations. This may include a deeper focus on AI through research partnerships, cross-pollination between incubators, exploring joint workforce development programs, etc. Beyond research partnerships and institutional linkages, these steps can overtime develop bridges between Australian, Indian, Japanese, and American tech ecosystems on the mobilization of talent. Given the recent developments on the China-U.S. tech rivalry, Quad nations may explore a 'Joint AI Readiness Assessment' to determine areas of relative strength and areas of cooperation. This can be along the lines of the bilateral assessment on semiconductors announced by the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and India Electronics Semiconductor Association (IESA) under the India-U.S. initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET). 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