India and Canada never had such good relationship as right now: Canadian envoy

New Delhi, October 13 (IANS): Terming the chemistry between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney as "excellent", Canadian High Commissioner to India Christopher Cooter said on Tuesday that the two nations never had as "good a relationship" as it is right now.  In an exclusive interview with IANS ahead of Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand's arrival in New Delhi later in the day, Cooter spoke about the recent engagements between the leadership of both countries, including meetings between External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and Anand. He also talked about the upcoming visit of Canada's Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu."I think it is fair to say that we never had as good a relationship as we have right now. Starting at the highest level, the chemistry between our two Prime Ministers is excellent. They have met four times in just over a year. Officials are also meeting regularly. We recently had our National Security Advisor here for discussions with his Indian counterpart, and our Foreign Minister is coming here. This will be her 10th meeting with India's External Affairs Minister over the past year," the Canadian High Commissioner told IANS."Our Trade Minister will also visit next week, leading a delegation of 300 Canadian business representatives. I believe this is the largest trade delegation we have ever taken anywhere, certainly to India. They will be here for a week, going to several cities in southern India. We have got dialogues on energy, migration and defence, and we expect a defence-related visit in the near future. We had at least six other ministers visiting India over the past year. Our Prime Minister of course came here in March. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to come to Canada in early December. At that point, we are hoping to sign our first Free Trade Agreement during that visit. Which if we can do it, it will happen at light speed, because we only really began to negotiate this in March of this year," he added.Cooter noted that ties between India and Canada are moving forward in the private sector as well with both nations "discovering each other" and aiming to double the trade by 2030."On many, many fields, we are moving ahead both on the public side, which is between the leaders and officials, and also on the private sector side. More and more companies, as I said, are coming on this mission next week. But, other than that, we've got energy companies talking to each other. We've got IT companies investing in both countries. Right now, we employ in India, mainly through our IT companies, but also auto and other sectors, about 100,000 Indians in good well-paying jobs. But in Canada, about 50,000 Canadians are actually employed by Indian companies. So while trade per se is not where it should be, and we've got a goal of doubling it by 2030, if you look at the investments that are pouring in, it's going very, well. What we're doing right now is we're kind of discovering each other. I mean, we've had a long relationship."He noted that India and Canada will mark 80 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 2027 and stressed that the two countries are building a momentum that both sides have talked about for decades but never managed to achieve, one which is more commensurate with the size of economies, the scale of growth and momentum in both countries."You're building to Viksit Bharat, developed country status by 2047. I would argue that we're doing something similar in Canada over the last year or so. We have just had an investment conference where the corporate side pledged some $500 billion in investment in Canada. We are going to spend $500 billion more on investment in defence by 2035. So we're ramping up and in a way developing to be a different kind of Canada, a new Canada that wasn't even visible six months ago.""With all of that gravity from the enormous size and growth of the Indian economy and the changes in Canada that are coming about, mostly to diversify our trade. So, we have more options than just the United States. When you put all these pieces together, it fits incredibly well together. It's like gears fitting together, one supports the other and moves. The faster one goes, the faster the other one goes. That's where we're at. We're still a long way from where we need to be, but a lot of the government framework is being put in place. The business sector is getting to know each other, and I think we are going to see much, more even next year," he added.Cooter said that Canadian Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu, during his visit to India, will hold talks to advance the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) negotiations which are in the fifth round."For the Trade Minister, two things, one is to advance our CEPA negotiations. We're in the fifth round right now at the officials level. He will be speaking with Minister Goyal to take it further, to go faster. At the same time, he's heading this mission of 300 Canadian business people going to Mumbai and then going to Bangalore, and some of them will, of course, go to other cities. That's the largest trade mission I think we've ever done anywhere, certainly to India."Our Foreign Minister will also visit India. Both ministers are expected to participate in discussions at the Bloomberg conference. They will be talking about greater cooperation in the geopolitical sphere. The two Foreign Ministers will meet again to discuss a wide range of issues. For example, the New Partnership for Multilateralism was formed at the United Nations General Assembly a few weeks ago, and both countries are members. I expect them to talk about that and cooperation in defence field, which we also just begun. So there are a range of things that both ministers will be able to take further as we head towards the Prime Minister's visit to Canada in December," he added.